Cursed
by Artist2009
Summary: A witch, holding a grudge against Stoic. Curses hiccup, turning him into a dragon. How will he survive? and will he ever turn back?
1. The Witch (rewrite)

**AN- Hello and welcome to the first chapter of my fic.  
**

**This is the type of strory in which Hiccup becomes a dragon. I love these types of fics so i decided to do my own with my own twists.  
**

**This is actually a rewrite of the original first chapter as it really needed some improving, _badly._ So some future chapters may not quite fit with the plot changes here just yet. mainly to do with the witch really. i'll be going through the rest of the story later to correct that.**

**But anyway, please do enjoy. :)**

**Disclaimer - I do not own HTTYD of course.**

* * *

Circe the insane was who she was known as. A witch who performed black magic of the worst kind. She was hired by many to cast cruel magic on the innocent and the not so innocent throughout her life. These odd jobs however, were only a means of survival for her and sometimes an entertainment source. Her true reason for using the dark arts was much more sinister.

She practiced her spells, driven crazy with plans of _revenge_. For she only lived for the sweet moment she could witness the same pain and despair befall Stoic the vast, a viking chief, after what he'd done to her beloved _sweet_ mother. Have his child go through the same helplessness she felt when she couldn't convince Stoic to spare her mother. Make him feel how it had felt to have her heart ripped out and plunged into a never-ending darkness the light could not reach. Make him loath her, hate her, _despise her_ for what she's done. The way she had to him for all those years.

Yes, it was finally time. She'd finally perfected the spell she'd use to enact her revenge. It had taken fourteen long years to get here. Fourteen long years of practicing the black magic skills required for this spell. And tonight was the night she'd been waiting for specifically. The night of a dragon raid. She'd had a fortune-teller help her with the timing. It had to perfect. She looked on at the Isle of Berk from her boat as she smiled in glee.

Her long-awaited revenge was finally going to come to fruition.

* * *

It was a peaceful day on Berk, the sun was shining and the wind was blowing in a gentle breeze. Sure it was still very much cold as is usual on the Isle of Berk but compared to most days, it was slightly warmer and the gentle rays of sun could be felt against the skin.

Gentle days like these on Berk weren't often a good thing though, as it would usually be followed by a dragon attack the following night to the early hours of the morning. It was a day when the Vikings prepared for the worst. They would hide their life stock, bar up the storage sheds and sharpen their weapons. All but one young Viking that was seen as a more a hazard than a help with these duties. Hiccup the useless as they called him. The shame of the village and an embarrassment to his father.

Whenever he tried to help, disaster happened. It would always start out in good intentions such as making inventions that could help in the dragon raids. But things never really went as planned. Somehow he always seemed to do more damage to the village than the dragons did. It was a talent of it's own. Just, not a very wanted one.

If it wasn't enough that the older vikings always looked down on him with disdain and tried to avoid him like the plague. And how they showed lenity to the chief for such a let down of an offspring. His peers would enjoy making his life even worse. They enjoyed teasing him, using him like a punching bag and getting him into even more trouble with the village by putting the blame of their own mischievous acts on him. They'd always laugh when he made a hiccup of something like his name clearly mocked. Sometimes he wished he could just have a friend to talk to. A shoulder to cry on rather than his pillow when things became too much to bear.

The only one close to being what he could call a friend was Gobber. Gobber was the towns blacksmith that he'd been working as an apprentice for the past few years. He'd usually let off some steam over his hatred and distaste for the village with Gobber. Either by talking about it to him or pummeling some metal in the forge.

Which was what he was doing at the present moment in time. Pretty much the only thing he could help out with in preparation for the raid, was fixing and forging weapons.

A part of him hoped working in the forge would help him build some muscle and become more viking like in stature. But unfortunately, even after years of working at it he was still as weak and scrawny as a fish bone. It was like the gods hated him.

As if to prove a point, he then accidentally hit his thumb with the hammer he had used causing him to fall back into the hot coals of the furnace. Luckily Gobber caught him before he ended up suffering some serious burns.

"You need to be more careful lad," sighed Gobber. " I can' always be around each time you're abou' to 'ave an acciden'."

"Sorry Gobber. I don't know what happened. I'm not usually _that_ careless." Hiccup replied with some worry.

He was a bit _too_ close to getting fried just then. He began sucking on his sore thumb, Snotlout just had to walk by at that moment _of course._

"What are you? A baby? Hey guys look, little Hiccups sucking his thumb." Snotlout mocked as he called the other teens over.

"I hit it with a hammer actually, I was trying to numb the pain."

"Sure you were baby," Snotlout laughed, now joined by the others who also laughed.

All except his crush Astrid, who always seemed to find making fun of a weakling like him beneath her. But the reason behind the silence didn't matter to him. She wasn't laughing at him and that was the reason he liked her, _on top of her looks._

As the teens walked off now bored with messing with him, Gobber came up to him.

"Why don' you call I' a day. I can 'andle the res'." He said with some sympathy.

"Thanks Gobber. " He replied as he removed his apron. "I'm gonna head to the forest, I'll probably see you again tonight."

"Alrigh' lad, see you then."

* * *

The forest was Hiccups safe haven. Here he could relax under the sun that came in through the towering canopy of leaves and listen to the peaceful birdsong as he drew in his sketchbook. Drawing was a talent his people rarely had as they didn't really see the point in drawing pictures when they could be practicing to chop off the head of _some dragon_.

He sat down by a tree and began to draw. Letting his mind wander through the charcoal of his pencil. He began by drawing the landscape, then some flowers that were growing beside where he sat, to some birds that landed nearby to feed on the berries that grew from some of the trees. Hours passed by before he realized the sun had begun to set, turning the sky shades of orange, pink and purple. He wasn't too far from the village and didn't really feel like heading back just yet, so he decided to go further in to get a better view of the sunset.

He wondered for a small while before making it to the edge of a cliff face, just outside the forest. The view was amazing, better than he could have imagined. But when he placed his pencil to the paper to begin drawing...It snapped.

"That's odd," He said to himself. "I used a very strong wood for the handle. It doesn't just break with light pressure. I really hope it's not a bad omen." He whined out the last sentence.

But his superstitions sparked an edge of fear in him as he heard a branch crack behind him.

* * *

Circe had sailed her boat to the north side of the island. The fortune-teller had told her this was the most conspicuous route to get onto Berk. She tied up the boat and began her climb up the steep rocky pathway. It was hard going, but she couldn't risk being spotted just sailing into the village docks.

It was sunset by the time she'd trekked rather far along the forest, she was getting close to the village. She'd heard that Stoics son was a scrawny fish bone of a child that looked nothing like a viking. His current attire was a green tunic and brown fur vest. She'd wait on the out skirts of the village for him to run out during the raid - giving her the perfect opportunity to curse him.

That's what she had planned for however, she saw something move near her. She hid behind a tree and peeked out at the unexpected visitor. She couldn't believe her luck. It was the boy! He'd pretty much walked into her arms. She wouldn't have to wait for him to show up during the raid now.  
But. Cursing him here and now wasn't apart of her carefully thought out plan. She should wait for him to return. Or at least wait for the raid to start.  
After fourteen years of waiting for this moment, her impatience got the better of her. She followed after the boy.

* * *

"Who's there?" He cried into the looming darkness of the forest. But there wasn't an answer. He got up slowly and faced the forest, trying to make out anything at all. Then another snapping branch was heard, closer this time.

"Is anyone there," he repeated, starting to fear it was not a person coming toward him but some wild animal, stalking him.

Scared, he ran along the cliff face heading back toward the village. He heard something coming after him. He ran sideways back into the forest to find somewhere to hide since by the sound of it, it was gaining on him faster than he could run away!

He kept running, pushing his lungs and legs as hard as he could until, he tripped.

"Damn it. What is with my luck today!?" he shouted as he tried to get back to his feet before tripping again soon after.

Then to his horror, something pounced on top of him.

"AAHHHH" he screamed, terrified he was about to become some beasts dinner. He closed his eyes waiting for the killing blow...

But none came, instead he heard cackling laughter.

"Wha?" He tried to look up to see what was on his back. To his surprise it was some strange woman dressed in strange black and violet robes.

"G-get off of me" He yelled as he shoved her off.

"_My_ you sure are rude." she said in a feline like way. "You could have asked me politely to get off of you."

"Why would I be polite to someone who just chased me down and pinned me to the ground!?"

"Hmm, I suppose that's true. But still, you deserved it." She grinned.

"Deserved it!? What..how. How did i deserve being chased and pounced on?"

This womans reasoning was insane. He took a better look at her. She was young, maybe in her twenties. She was rather beautiful, long silky black hair and_ purple eyes_? that was unusual.

"Who are you anyway? I didn't think we had anyone visiting Berk at the moment."

"It's impolite to ask for one's name before announcing your own Hiccup." She stated.

"Again with the politeness? Well I'm Hi- wait a sec. You just said my name, how do you know my name?

She started to laugh maniacally before suddenly stopping. It was _weird_ and she was creeping him out.

"My name is Circe. I once knew your father."

"You knew my farther? I don't recall him ever mentioning you before."

"Well I guess he wouldn't would he? He brought me great pain. He killed my mother, believing she had you cursed see."

"Cursed?" He didn't understand what she was talking about? This woman was clearly delusional and crazy. Not to mention the bad vibe he was getting from her. Just the look she gave him put his hair on end and he swore it felt colder.

"In what way exactly? I feel fine."

"Ah that is a good question, see my mother was a healer for the village for a time. The village knew she practiced witchcraft -"

"Witchcraft!?"

"Don't interrupt me!" She shouted.

"Uh, sorry, I've just always thought it to be myth."  
She was clearly unstable. He needed to stay clam until he could get away.

"Well it's not! Anyway, the villagers were fine with her using witchcraft as it helped to heal people far better than normal healing methods and she never performed dark spells. She was friendly and kind and everyone got along with her well until _that day_.

The day of your birth. She was to deliver you from your mother Valka. She'd delivered _other_ babies before without problems so the chief trusted her with his future heir and wife. Unfortunately something went wrong during the birthing. When you came out you would not breath. Seeing the distressed look on Valka's face she offered to use her magic to save their baby which they hesitantly agreed. The magic did save you, however at a price."

"What kind of price?" He asked. He was generally curious now.

"You ended up shrinking. You were original a normal sized baby but the spell made you into a weak little _runt_ of a child. Stoic was furious. He believed my mother had done it on purpose. Thought she schemed to deny him a strong heir."

"She pleaded with him that it wasn't her fault. That your body had sacrificed some of itself to add strength to your lungs. That you would have died if she hadn't done anything. But he was lost in anger and didn't listen to her plea. He had her burned at the stake for being a witch that used dark magic."

"That's horrible. But, my dad wouldn't do such a terrible thing. Are you sure you're not mistaken? And besides, I wouldn't really call it a curse. She saved me. So what if I'm weak and scrawny, I'm alive.

"I'M NOT MISTAKEN!" She screamed. "I want revenge! I have worked fourteen long years to get it. The only thing that kept me going has been the hope of when this day would finally come! The day I can finally enact it."

Her eyes grew wide and an evil smile graced her features. She was really starting to scare him now.

"R-revenge!? What so you are going to kill him?"

"No" she said as her grin seemed to grow impossibly wider

"Worse. I plan on giving his heir a true curse and have him kill his son without realizing it until it's too late. Let him suffer in the despair that he gave me. Have his heart fall into a deluge of darkness that is impossible to escape." She laughed.

Hiccup started to back away.

"Y-you're gonna c-curse me." He said shakily, fear starting to take over. He needed to get away from this woman.

"Yes" she said as she started to laugh and pulled out a stick with a jewel encrusted in the handle.

* * *

For a moment time seemed to stop for Circe. She looked at this frightened child at the end of her stick. Was this really fair? She wanted others to suffer as badly as she did. The pain she bore was unbearable and she just wanted to burden others with it as well. She enjoyed seeing their pained and anguished expressions. Yes, that's why she was doing it. It wasn't just for revenge on Stoic she was doing this. She loved to torment people. She was a real sadist that took pleasure in others pain. She didn't care if this was cruel - involving the boy in revenge against his father. She'd hurt countless innocence before and this time was no different.

* * *

Hiccup tried to run but his legs buckled and he started to crawl backwards away from her.

"No please, wait! Stop."

But it was too late. She'd made up her mind in those few seconds. She swung her wand, a light shot out and hit him in the chest.

He let out a scream as light engulfed him. He felt pain like he'd never felt it before. It felt like his bones were melting. His blood ran through his veins like molten lava as his heart beat at an impossibly fast pace. He could just make out the sound of laughter as his ears rung with a painfully high-pitched sound. He felt each and every one of his bones break. He barely opened his eyes to look at the witch through blurred and blooded vision. She looked to be withering in pleasure as she watched him scream and cry in the agonising pain. He knew this women felt wrong, he should have gotten away sooner.

Then he felt something large tearing out through his back. What was happening to him?He didn't want to think of what she had done to him. He hoped he would just die. But of course, the gods were never kind enough to listen to his wishes.

After what felt like an eternity of pain, he finally passed out. The last thing he could hear was Circe still laughing in her maniacal way at his suffering.

* * *

**AN- thanks for reading and please do review to tell me what you think. :)**


	2. Awakening

**AN - Hello again, first off thankyou for the reviews,maximumride1444,FulltHrottle3639 and Breyannia. also thanks for the favs and the follows. it's means alot. i'm so glad you're enjoying my story so far. **

**i had some writers block in parts of this chapter but i got through it and i think it went well. tell me what you think. constuctive critism is welcome. **

**i forgot to mention last chap that this story starts a day before the movie begins. this chapter is the night of the dragon raid that starts the movie. anyway, enjoy. :)**

**Disclaimer - i don't own HTTYD of course. **

The smell of earth and grass.  
That's the first thing that came to his senses.

Had he fallen asleep? He wasn't sure. Next came the pain. His head pounded and his body felt like it was on fire. He ached all over and felt heavy. he tried to move but for some reason it felt foreign. like his body wasn't his own. the pain in his head started to ease so he tried to open his eyes.  
He was met with blurry images of dark browns, greens and black. he tried to remember what had happened.

Yes, He'd been in the forest. Drawing. Like usual. then what? why was he sleeping on the ground?  
Pain. Yes, he remembered lots of pain. the sound of laughter. A witch? That witch! Circe!

He jolted upright with the realisation of what had happened only to fall back to the ground as his head throbbed with pain again.  
she said she was going to curse him, and had hit him with some light from that stick of hers. a wand? that's what witches used right?  
what had she done to him? where was she now?

He tried to get up again, steadying himself on wobbly legs. but something felt weird. why was he standing on all fours? he looked down and with blurred vision saw where he arms should be, two thick black stumps. he tried to move them. he realised these were his arms. why did they look different? his vision began to clear and he could see they were covered in scales. SCALES!

now he was starting to panic. he swished his head back and forth looking at his body. it was completely black covered in scales. on his back were leathery bat like wings. he had a tail with four leathery find attached. as he moved he felt something weird attached to his head so he reached up with his 'paws' and felt several appendages attached to his head. he moved his tongue and felt sharp teeth in his mouth.

then he realised what he had become. a dragon! how was it possible to turn someone into a dragon!? witchcraft was strange...and scary!  
something she had told him came back to him. "I plan on giving his heir a true curse and have him kill his son without realising it until it's too late"  
of course, turning him into a dragon would make him prey for the vikings of his village to hunt, including his father.

what was he gonna do? should he go back and try to show his village he meant no harm? would they even notice if he wasn't attacking them and still kill him anyway? he didn't know what to do.

he decided to have another look at himself. what was he? he'd never seen a dragon like himself before. pure black scales, small sleek body. he couldn't see his head but he could tell he didn't look as fierce as other breeds of dragon like a monstrous nightmare with fangs jutting out its mouth or a nadder with sharp spines sticking out its tail. he couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

he noticed it gotten rather dark out, the stars were twinkling in the sky and the moon was giving off a faint glow. it was very quiet n the forest. he was surprised at how well he could see. usually he'd have trouble seeing his own hand in front of his face in this light, but now he could see every tree clearly and could also see much further into the distance. his smell was also more acute. he could smell the nature around him even better than after a rainfall.

he was amazed by how acute a dragons senses were. he tried out his hearing, focusing on whatever small sounds he could make out in the silence. then he heard it, clear as day. why hadn't he heard it before? the sounds of vikings battling, fires burning and dragons roaring. the village was under attack!  
without thinking of the consequences he rushed back to his home, temporary forgetting his situation.

Chaos. that would be what Berk's current situation would be.

dragons swarmed the sky's, diving down to snatch up sheep and stored fish. fighting off vikings who tried to stop their plundering. shooting fire here and there. buildings and grass on fire, axes and bolas being thrown left and right. the teens running around trying to put out the fires as the adult vikings gave out war cries, trying to injure and kill dragons. some were even fighting in mid air, like one viking, holding onto a groncle as it flew around as he hit it's head with a hammer. the torches went up and the catapults were fired, throwing boulders at some unlucky flying nadders.

The chief, stoic the vast, was fighting off a monstrous nightmare with his hammer when a familiar skreek was heard. a nightfury. vikings shouted out the famous line "night fury, get down" as it fired at one of the catapult towers. the top came crashing down destroying another building. then it fired again destroying the base. only the silhouette of this dragon could be seen as it flew past its destruction.

meanwhile in the forge, gobber was busy fixing bent and broken weapons that kept coming in from the fight wondering where his apprentice could be. he didn't miss work often and he could really use the help right now.

he didn't think too much about it though as if he hadn't been woken from the dragon attack, he may still be in the forest doing whatever he did in there after work and must of lost track of time like he sometimes did. he was probably waiting for it to get light so he could make his way back. He'd give him extra work later to make up for it.

Hiccup made it to the edge of the forest that connected with the village. He had quite a bit of trouble making it here as he was still getting used to walking on all fours. not to mention the wings. they just drooped down either side of him, tripping him up and painfully snagging on things. he tried to move them up out of the way, but it was difficult controlling limbs he didn't have before. He got by with just moving his shoulder blades for now which moved them slightly. he could feel the new muscles in his wings from there but it felt weird and foreign trying to move them.

the tail didn't get in the way too much apart from getting a few scratches on rocks embedded in the ground, so he'd figure out how to move that later. for now, he'd made it to the village. but now what?

a nightmare saw him and started to crawl up to him.  
"oh gods it's gonna kill me"he cried as he freaked out. "but wait, I'm a dragon now, it wouldn't attack one of its own would it" his frightened mind tried to reason. so he forced himself to hold his ground instead of run away.

"what are you doing hatching, one so young shouldn't be here in the raid"he stated.  
Hiccup was in shock at first, the dragon was talking!? dragons didn't talk! or maybe they did, in their own language, which meant he could understand dragon now. how could he understand a whole new language just from being turned into one? maybe it was another thing the spell did.

lost in thought he'd forgotten the nightmare had asked a question.  
"answer me hatchling! what are you doing here?" he shouted, frustrated hiccup wasn't answering him.  
Hatchling? what did he mean by that. was the dragon species he'd turned into not meant to be this small? pulling himself away from his thoughts he tried to think of an answer. he couldn't say he was human turned dragon, it might attack him after all.

"umm, i got separated from my parents, got lost in the forest." he said trying to play along with being a hatchling. it was believable right?  
"What would your parents be doing on a viking island?"  
"ummm" what could he say now, the nightmare was right, it didn't make any sense for him to be on this island.  
but before he could carry on with his answer an axe was swung between them!

"AHHH" hiccup screamed. he'd been seen. the nightmare gave a shriek and flew off, leaving him.  
"he clearly values his own life more than some hatchling!" he shouted as he ran from the viking.

He ended up running further into the village in his fright. other vikings saw him and tried to hit him with their axes, swords and hammers. being so small and quick he managed to dodge their swings. then before he knew it he was in front of his house. He'd run to where his consciousness screamed safety at him, but it wasn't safe here. not anymore.

But still, he needed to hide, get away from these blood thirsty vikings. he scratched at the door, trying to grasp the handle, but his paws weren't the right shape for it. the he heard a familiar shout.  
"GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE DEMON!"

it was his father! he was so scared he began to shake and cry. "please. dad. it's me, Hiccup." but all that came out his mouth were grunts and skreeches. He couldn't speak to him.  
stoic raised his sword and struck down. Hiccup tried to dodge. He escaped a killing blow but the sword hid his left hind leg. slicing a deep gash into his flesh.  
"AHHH" he screamed. He tried the next best thing and tried to scribble words into the ground, but his paws were shaking too much and he didn't have full control of them yet anyway. stoic tried to hit him again.

Hiccup was so afraid. then all of a sudden he felt heat forming at the back of his throat and let out a blast of fire. but not just any fire. it was blue like a night fury's. he hit his father straight in the chest and without anymore though ran as fast as he could back to the forest, hearing shouts of "night fury, Kill it".  
ignoring the pain in his leg the best he could with adrenaline flowing through him, He kept running and running, all the while crying.

trees zoomed past in a blur, branches scratched at his wings. the shock of it all made his ears ring, in all the panic and confusion he just kept running until all of a sudden...he fell! he hadn't noticed the drop in his fright. he screamed as he fell into a cove in the middle of the forest. luckily he landed in the pond within it.

he swam to the surface and used his left over strength to swim to the shore, dragging himself onto land. he so badly wanted to pass out now that the adrenaline was wearing off, but he needed to hide. what if they came looking for him?  
he spotting a cave on the other side of the cove and stumbled over to it, falling down a few times. he went as far back inside as he could before darkness finally took him.

**okay so another cliffhanger. even though i'm writing the story it gets me excited and wanting more XD**

**you may have noticed i spaced the chapter more this time. seemed a bit bulky in text last chapter, hope this makes it easier to read. **


	3. Storm

**AN- two chapters in one day. few. i just had to continue straight away though, i'm so excited. **

**thanks for the reviews and more faves and follows XD thanx so much. also some mentioned i should get a beta reader so i'm trying to get one now. i did go through it a few times this time to add capitals and spellchecked it so it should be better. i did add scene breakers in the last chap but they seem to have not come out for some reason. i'll try again with this chap and if it works i'll edit chapter 2. anyway, enjoy. :)**

**Disclaimer - i Don't own HTTYD**

* * *

"A night fury huh?" Stoic said to himself as he sat in the healers hut. The night fury had burned through his armour with it's blast and had given him some second degree burns. A mild inconvenience for the chief.  
Gothi was currently treating him. He had wanted to go straight after it but Gobber had advised he should get the burns treated first in case infection set in.

They would look for it later if it hadn't already flown away. However, the way it hung it's wings made him think it had injured them somehow. Otherwise it could have flown away then and there rather than run off. He'd injured it's leg so it couldn't have gone far.  
So he reluctantly came to Gothi to get the treatment over with.  
He also had to start getting the village repaired. Finding the night fury would have to wait, the village came first.

Gothi came in with Gobber, carrying some herbs which she proceeded to ground into a paste.  
"This won't take too long will it?" The chief asked.  
Gothi hit him over the head with her stick then wrote down some symbols on the ground"  
"Ow, what was that for?"  
"She says you should be more patien'," Gobber said, translating for the elder as he usually did. Not many in the village could understand her symbols.  
Stoic sighed "fine."  
"Can' believe we saw a nigh' fury though. No one has ever seen one and lived to tell the tell. Didn' seem all tha' fierce though. I' was so small and it's blast didn' even severely injure you!" Gobber stated  
"What i don't get is why it was on the ground. It's always been in the sky's, avoiding contact. It never even come down to steal food like the others. And why was it trying to get in my house?"  
"Don' ask me, I'm jus' in the dark as you. "  
Both men tried to make sense of it in their heads for a while as Gothi proceeded to put the paste onto Stoics burns.

"Has Hiccup returned yet?" Asked Stoic. He also knew that Hiccup sometimes disappeared into the forest and sometimes got stuck out there in the dark before returning when the sun came up.  
"No 'e hasn'. I'm star'ing to get a bi' worried. Mainly because of that night fury. It ran into those woods after all."  
Stoic abruptly stood up earning another whack from Gothi.  
"Ow would you stop that!?" he yelled getting another whack.

He sat down again urging her to hurry up as worry started to seep in. The village would have to wait. He had to make sure Hiccup was okay. The night fury may have only hurt him a bit, but he was strong and tough. Hiccup was weak and frail. The blast that hurt him could easily kill Hiccup.

"Gobber, set up a search party! We're looking for Hiccup and that night fury as soon as Gothi is finished with these bandages."  
"S-Sure thing." Gobber left with a flutter of fear in his heart for Hiccup. He'd grown rather close with the boy after the last few years of him being his apprentice. The thought of something happening to him pained him dearly.

* * *

Unknowingly to them, a certain witch was eavesdropping on them outside the hut.  
"So he became a night fury hmm? Very interesting." she cackled as a grin spread on her face.

She had tested the dragon transformation spell on several animals before Hiccup and discovered the species of dragon to always be random. She had left before he'd fully transformed as sometimes her test subjects didn't pass out and tried to attack her. She had nearly been severely injured last time when a rabbit had turned into a whispering death. She didn't want to risk that again.

She had watched from afar and saw he was a black dragon but she didn't know of the species. The only thing that gave him away after all was when he blasted his flame at his father.  
She had loved watching that. She had hoped he would be killed straight away, but him fleeing after being injured made the delight of it so much better. Now they were going to hunt him down like an animal.

From her research the spell only wore off if the test subject were killed. which would add even more to the despair without her even having to reveal herself and explain what he had done when he finally killed his son.

She snuck away quietly, no one even knowing she had been there. Before laughing wickedly into the forest to see if she could find Hiccup and get a good view of what was to come when the search party arrived. 

* * *

"Youuu caan't caaatch meee~"  
"Give me back my helmet!"  
"Not unless you say the maagic woooorrrd~"  
"I'm not saying it to you dam it, give it back!"

Two figures ran through the trees of the forest, one was Ruffnut. she was running away with her brother Tuffnut's helmet tightly in her clutches. Teasing him all the while.

"If you let me have your desert tonight I'll give it back" she laughed. Her brother looked ridiculous running after her, swiping his long hair out of his face as he pushed branches out the way.  
"No way, mums doing raspberry butter bread tonight. It's my favourite!"  
"It's my favourite too, that's why i want yours as well."  
"Well you can't have it!"  
"Well you can't have your helmet back then" she yelled back.

They kept on running for a bit before Ruff let out a yelp.  
Tuff couldn't see her in his sights anymore until he heard a distinct clang as his helmet hit the ground. He ran up to it.  
"HA, i got it back. Take that Sis... Sis?"

His sister had disappeared. Awesome. He thought to himself.  
"Up here doufis" she cried.  
He looked up and saw Ruff hanging by her foot from some rope. She'd run into a trap.  
"HAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he began to roll on the ground clutching his stomach.  
"It's not funny. Okay it is pretty funny. But still, get me down!"

"HAHAHAAHHOOOHAhaha...ha. ... Why?"  
"What do you mean why? As much as I'd like to 'hang around', dinners gonna be ready in an hour and it'll go cold if I'm stuck here. Duh"  
"Ah true. But then I'd get your half of the pudding right?"  
"WHAT! Wait, get me down." She started to struggle frantically to get out.

"Fine I'll give you my share of the pudding if you get me down from here. I want to at least have dinner."  
"Not much of a deal since you're tied up there and I'm free to help myself without your consent." He said smugly.  
"Dam it Tuff. Hey. Where are you going. Get back here."  
"Not unless you say the maaagic woord~" He sang back at her like she had done earlier.  
"I won't ever say that to you barf brain!"  
"Have it your way," he said before making his way back. "I'll let you down tomorrow. Have fun." He waved then ran off.

"Jerk." She sulked, now she was gonna go hungry. She had being looking forward to her dinner and desert.  
About 15 minutes past by and Ruff was getting Bord.

"AGGHHH. This is so boring...That's it I'm getting down even if i have to bite my own leg off."  
She began swinging trying to gain enough momentum to reach the branch above her. When she was nearly there she heard a snap. Her heart leapt to her throat. "Uh oh." The snapping and cracking of the branch grew louder and she could feel it giving way to her weight.

It finally snapped and she screamed as she fell onto the ground. The ground wasn't completely flat though and she soon found her self tumbling down a hill that grew steeper as she went. The branch trailing after her.  
"WAHHHHHH" she screamed. "This is fun and scary!" she cried.

Then she came to an abrupt halt as the branch got caught in between two large boulders.  
"That was AWESOME" she yelled. "I'll have to tell Tuff about this so we can do it again."

Her grin soon left when she noticed her front half was slightly hanging...over a cliff face. It wasn't the sea though, it looked like a small cove. It was quite a drop down. Then she heard something snapping. She looked up at her leg. The robe must have snagged on the way down since it was currently breaking thread by thread. She desperately tried to reach it but it was too late. The only thing stopping her from falling to her death gave way and she fell.

"AHHHH, well at least I'm dying upside down, AHHHH"she screamed before she hit the water of the pond inside the cove.  
As shocked as she was that she was still alive she swam to the surface. "Thank Odin this water was here" she sighed in relief.  
She swam to the shore and looked around.

"I didn't even know this place existed. Me and Tuff could have lots of fun here" She grinned. As she walked forward to look around more she found herself limping slightly. The ropes hold had bruised her leg quite badly but it wasn't too big of a deal to her. At least it wasn't broken.

Thunder could be heard in the distance before rain started to fall.  
"Aww come on, a storm. Now! I was hoping to make my way back before Tuff ate my desert but i guess i should find shelter. As much as getting struck by lightning sounds awesome, I'd rather not die before i can show Tuff the fun and scary hill to roll down."

With that she looked for somewhere to take shelter in the cove. It would be pointless to try climbing out now since the rain was making the rocks slippery and muddy.  
She spotted a cave and made her way towards it as the rain grew heavier and more thunder was heard.

She crawled inside to where the rain couldn't reach her. The cave went a bit further in though and since it was boring to just wait out the rain she might as well see how far it went.  
It didn't go much farther and she couldn't see in the pitch blackness of it anyway. She'd have to remember to bring a torch next time to see what it looked like.  
But just then... she heard a growl. She moved her hand to the ground in an attempt to shuffle away from whatever had made that sound but instead of the rocks from the cave, she felt something warm and smooth. a hiss came from whatever she had touched. Then it struck!

She was pushed to the ground as something got on top of her and pinned her. She couldn't even make a sound. She was scared. Was she gonna be eaten?  
The creature sniffed her before looking at her. Out of the blackness that surrounded her all she could make out, quite clearly in fact were big green eyes. It let out a sound of clicks and warbles. And just as she was about to scream and shove this thing off her it did something unexpected. It started rubbing the side of it's head in her chest and was it... was it crying?

Clearly this creature didn't mean any harm and was just scared so she just lay there. She picked up the courage to lay a hand on it's side and it twitched slightly perhaps from surprise but then relaxed as she stroked it.

"shhh shhh it's okay. i won't hurt you if you don't hurt me okay?" She didn't know if it could understand her but it seemed to relax a bit more.  
So she stayed awake as the night set in and the storm raged on. Comforting this frightened, sad little creature until and after it fell asleep. She held the creature to her body in a sort of hug. She could feel it had wings, but it couldn't have been a dragon right? Dragons wouldn't act like this?

Those were her last thoughts as she drifted off to sleep. She'd find out what this creature was tomorrow if it didn't change it's mind and made her a midnight snack.

* * *

**So now Ruffnut has come across poor Hiccup. i hope she doen't seeem OOC. She was quite gentle and caring in the TV episode Free Scaldy, so i based it off that a bit. Anyway, look forward to another update sometime tomorrow :)  
**


	4. Protection

**AN- Heres chapter 4. it's the longest chapter yet at 3,448 words. over a thousand more than usual. this was gonna be split in two chapters at first. but i combined them. thought i'd spoil all my followers and reviewers since you guys are awesome. XD  
also, i only just figured out i had to manualy accept reviews ****from visitors. so i did that. i'll reply to visitors** **at the bottom**. **i'll also try and reply to those who have already reviewed as well through pm. i just get stuck on what to say. i'll give my thx at the bottom**.

**anyway, please do enjoy the chapter and tell me what you think :)**

**Disclaimer - I don't own HTTYD**

* * *

As Hiccup drifted into consciousness he smelt a weird concoction of scents like gunpowder, fish oil, forest and mud. His dazed mind realised his head was gently bobbing up and down as something breathed beneath him. He figured he should be frightened that something living was beneath him and had it's arms wrapped around him. But he didn't. He felt an odd comfort from it.

* * *

He faintly remembered what had happened the night before. An hour or so after hiding within the cave, he'd awoken to the sound of thunder and the start of rain. A storm was incoming. Normally he'd panic, being trapped outside in a storm. But now, he felt relief. If they were gonna come after him, it would be when the storm ended. The rain would wash away his tracks making it near impossible for them to find him, especially since he was camouflaged in the pitch black cave.

There was fresh water he could reach if he needed it which he would do under the darkness of night. Food could wait until they gave up the hunt. It was far safer to stay in the cove for now until he could figure out if it was possible to change back or at least learn to fly so he could escape the island.

His thoughts had been interrupted by a scuffling sound. Something was making it's way into the cave! Fear resurfaced, was it an animal seeking shelter? Or was this it's home? Maybe the hunting party had ignored the storm and found him?

The scuffling grew closer and he let out an involuntary growl out of terror. The figure gasped. He could make out it was a person. He couldn't smell any metal on them though. Even without his heightened dragon senses he was familiar with the smell after working the forge so many years.

He felt them place a hand on his tail, _"Go away,"_ he hissed. Even without weapons, they could still be strong enough to beat and kick him to death as he'd seen his father do plenty of times before. So when the figure didn't move away, he made the first move. He pounced and pinned the person to the ground.

He gave them a sniff to make sure they really didn't have weapons on them, instead he could smell mud, forest and rain. Under that was the smell of fish oil in their long hair and gunpowder and soot on their clothing. He decided to take a look remembering his enhanced vision. The figure looked female until she came more into focus.

It was Ruffnut! what was she doing here?  
Even though he knew she had been cruel to him, played pranks on him and laughed at him with the other teens. He forgot all that for a moment. He was so scared and so alone he started to cry and rub his head against her for comfort. She clearly couldn't harm him in her current position and seemed like a good a time as any to show he wasn't a threat.

And it seemed to work as she began petting him and letting out calming words to comfort him. She said she wouldn't hurt him which made him relax into her touch as she hugged him.

The piled up fear, confusion, panic, pain and sorrow finally took it's tole and he fell asleep in her embrace. Hoping she would keep to her word and not hurt him when the storm let up and morning came.

* * *

She was still asleep. He could see her more clearly now the sun had come out. Sure he could see well in the dark, but it was more of a black and white picture where living things and object reflected the light more clearly than when he was human.

In the day he could see how mud caked her skin and hair, green and brown twigs and leaves sticking out here and there. But at the same time it looked like the mud had run down due to contact with water. The rain maybe? Why wasn't she wearing her helmet? Where was her weapon? Why was she even down here alone? So many questions went through his head until he heard he coming too.

She opened her eyes and looked at him in a dazed trance for a few seconds before she screamed. She clearly wasn't expecting a dragon to be on her.  
He backed off a bit and cowered low to the ground of the cave, making himself even smaller and harmless.  
Then she seemed to remember the night before and apologised.

"Sorry. You startled me there. I won't hurt you okay. i did say i wouldn't right? Can you understand me?" She asked.  
Hiccup carefully lifted his head and gave a small nod.

"So you can understand me!" She looked rather surprised. It was expected though. Hiccup was surprised when he found out dragons had a whole language of their own when before, dragons were seen as mindless beasts. He could only understand the dragons language because of the spell though.

He wondered if other dragons could understand humans or it was only him since he knew Norse already. Would they have bothered to learn viking if the vikings hadn't bothered to learn dragon? He'd have to try asking any other dragons he came across.

"Come on lets get out of this cave, the storms stopped and I'm starving. I didn't eat dinner last night because i got stuck down here after my brother abandoned me."

Tuff had abandoned her, was that usual? He never could really understand the twins and their antics.  
He hesitantly followed her out of the safety of the cave.

"Wow! so you are a dragon!" She exclaimed."I've never seen one like you before though. Small and black. You're actually rather cute"  
Cute! He was cute! He figured he didn't look ferocious... but cute!

He noticed her start to check herself over.  
"Dam, i must have lost my helmet when i fell."  
So she had fallen huh? he wondered if she fell into the cove like he had.

Keeping and cautious eye on her he headed over to the river for a drink. He was rather thirsty after all the running last night and hadn't had a drink since he'd left to go drawing.  
He saw his reflection in the calm water of the pond. Ruff was right, he did look cute. He had big green eyes with large square pupils and frills coming out of his head.

"What, you never seen your reflection before?" She asked.  
He shook his head.  
She took a look over him. "Why are your wings drooping like that? Won't they get damaged? Can't you fold them?"  
He shook his head again and tried moving them a bit.

"Huh. It's like you can't control them properly. Are you some kind of hatchling or something? Not learnt to fly yet?"  
Hiccup was surprised at how intelligent her questions were. With how reckless the twins acted, he figured they were idiots. But here she was, asking him practical questions.

He gave a nod since the nightmare had called him a hatchling anyway so he probably was one. Humans most likely aged faster than dragons or something.  
"Awwww. No wonder you're so small. Did you lose your parents?" She said looking around for any potential threat of an adult dragon that would attack her for being near it's hatchling.

He gave nod. Then he looked down and started to cry again. In a way he had actually lost his parents. his mother was dead and his father tried to kill him since he didn't realise who he was. He could no longer go back to the village. As much as he despised the way they treated him, at least he had had a home and some people who cared for him. Now he was completely alone and in the wilderness.

Then he felt arms around him, he panicked slightly until he realised she was hugging him. Hugging felt strange, but nice. Even as a human no one ever hugged him, not even his father.  
"It's okay, you'll find your parents again, they can't be too far away right?" She asked.

He shook his head and leaned into her.  
"Their not dead are they?" She hesitantly asked. He bowed his head giving her all the answer she needed.  
"I'm sorry."  
They stayed like that for a while. Her hugging him as he leaned into her, crying.

When they finally parted she had a determined look on her face.  
"Right, well if your an orphan then i can look after you if you'd like"

Hiccup was shocked. Ruffnut would go against viking rule of killing dragons and actually help one survive. Sure she'd been comforting him until now which he hadn't put much thought into since he was so lost in sorrow and in need of human contact. But permanently caring for him! Like some kind of replacement mother? She could get in serious trouble if she was caught. But... why did he care? This was Ruffnut. She'd hurt him plenty of times over the years. Laughing at him when he messed up and got in trouble.

But then, she didn't know he was Hiccup the useless turned into a dragon!  
And she'd shown a caring side that he'd never thought he'd see in her toward his dragon self.  
Still, he needed to survive until he found a cure, going under her care would be beneficial to him.

She most likely wouldn't get found out easily anyway. He knew how sneaky she and her brother could be when setting up their pranks.

"Oh you poor thing! Your injured" She suddenly said.  
He looked around at his leg. He'd somehow forgotten it. It looked terrible.  
Not only was there a deep gash in his leg but infection was setting in. it didn't smell too good and there was yellow and green ooze coming from it.  
"Quickly! get into the water. I'll wash it out for now."

I knew why she was in a hurry about it. Infection was deadly. If it wasn't treated fast enough, the whole limb would have to be amputated. Even worse still, if left even longer, the infection would spread to the blood and you'd be a gonner.

For dragons it was worse, lost limbs were a common occurrence for vikings, but to a dragon it meant death. How could a dragon hunt and defend itself properly with a missing limb? Not to mention flight and landing.

So he walked into the water and let her scrub it out with some moss she'd found growing on a nearby rock.  
It hurt a lot! He cried out a few times and resisted the urge to bite her the best he could.  
"Shh shh, it's okay, it'll be over soon."

With her comforting words he bared with it, even when it felt like she was rubbing sandpaper over the raw flesh.  
When she finally got rid of all the pus, it started to bleed again. She tore off some fabric from her clothing, wrapping it around his leg to put some pressure on it.

"That should do for now. I'll have to gets some herbs and bandages from Gothi. You must be hungry. Can you hunt at all?"  
he shook his head. The pain in his leg now just a nagging ache.  
"I'll bring back some fish as well then."

So she was leaving now. It made him scared. Her company had made him feel safe.  
_"Please don't go"_ he said. but of course she only heard warbles and growls.  
She seemed to get the message though as she saw the pleading look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll be back okay. I won't let anything happen to you." She gave him a kiss on the head and a hug then headed to a slope that looked like the way out of the cove. She must have spotted it earlier.  
When he couldn't see her anymore, he limped back to the cave to hide till she came back. That hunting party was still imminent after all.

* * *

She didn't understand what had come over her. She was protecting a dragon! Sure he was only a cute little hatchling but any other viking would have just killed him before he could grow into a strong fearsome enemy.

And why was she calling it a he? She couldn't tell the gender of a dragon! But for some reason she just knew, like some kind of sixth sense that the little black dragon was a he.  
Should she give him a name?

"AAAGGGGHHH" she cried rubbing and tearing her hands through her hair. "What is wrong with me? I'm a viking."  
Before she knew it she was back in the village. She noticed some kind of commotion going on.

The chief stood in front of about twenty vikings. All carrying weapons and travelling gear.  
"Right, so is everyone ready?" Stoic said in his booming voice  
"YEEEEAAAAHHHHH" cried the group of vikings.  
"Lets go find Hiccup"  
With that he turned toward the forest and began leading the group in.

Ruff spotted her brother and marched up to him. She gave him a good punch over the head. But before she could ask him what was going on he started talking to her.  
"Oh, hey sis. I see you got out of the trap." He stated completely unfazed from the punch to the head.  
"I NEARLY DIED," she shouted. "It was awesome"  
"Aww no fair, you had fun after all and without me." He sulked.

She punched him in the arm, "serves you right for leaving me and eating my pudding."  
"So in what way did you nearly die? Did that night fury find you?"  
"Night fury?"  
"Yeah, didn't you hear? Oh well i guess you didn't being stuck out there. But apparently this night fury turned up in the raid last night and attacked the chief. Shot a blast right at his chest. It went straight through his armour and gave him some wicked burns. Wish i could have seen it." He said excitedly.  
"Cool! Do you know what it looked like?"

"Yeah, the ones who saw it said it was small with black scales and sleek body. Also for some reason it was dragging it's wings on the ground as it ran away. They think it must have injured them or something. The chief managed to strike it on it's leg though so it couldn't have gone too far. That's what that search parties about. Oh and something about Hiccup missing or whatever."

Ruff just stared into space. That little dragon she had grown attached to was a night fury! And the chief gave him that awful wound. But wait, Did Tuff just say something about a hunting party! They were gonna find and kill him! NO! She couldn't let that happen. She'd told it that she'd be it's replacement mother.

Although she wasn't too serious when she stated it before, now she felt a strange motherly protectiveness wash over her. Remembering those pleading eyes when she left. She felt like she'd die to keep him safe.

Tuff began waving his hand in front of her face. "Earth to Ruffnut, are you in there?"  
She blinked rapidly "hey! get your stinking hand out of my face."  
"You were really zoning out there. Did you hit your head or something?"  
"No dumb ass"  
"Oh-Oh, tell me how you nearly died. I really want to hear it!" he said excitedly.

"Later" she said as she shoved past him. She needed to protect her hatchling. Her hatchling? Where did that come from? aagh that didn't matter now.  
She figured she had some time to get the medical supplies and some fish before she headed to the cove. The hunting party didn't know where he was and it had been raining so he wasn't as easy to track.

She ran to get the some fish first not caring if anyone saw her. They'd just think she was setting up a prank or something.  
Then she rushed to Gothi's. Luckily she was out so she nabbed up what she needed and disappeared into the forest. She knew what was needed for cuts since she and her brother had been to Gothi's plenty of times after all their dangerous stunts.

She made sure to stay clear of the hunting party as to not be asked what she was doing out here. Especially with a night fury on the lose.  
What else had Tuff said? Something about Hiccup missing? He must have not returned from one of his forest adventures or something. Perhaps the chief was worried that something had happened to him with the night fury out here.

She doubted the little thing would have hurt him though. He was clearly lost and scared and wouldn't have bothered fighting off a weakling like Hiccup. Hiccup didn't look like a threat at all. She'd probably end up running into him on her way to the cove, catching him goofing off as his father worried about him.  
She put her thoughts aside and soon reached her destination.

* * *

Stoic was frustrated and worried. He had wanted to set out as soon as Gothi was finished with him but then that storm hit. It would have been too dangerous to search in it with all that lightning and the rain would have blinded them of any clues.

Not like there was much to go on now that it was over. There weren't any footprints due to the rain washing them away. All they could do was look for any broken branches or objects Hiccup could have dropped while calling out his name.

They were also looking for the night fury, but his son came first. He still hadn't returned after the storm and it only increased his worry. He could be injured or worse. No. He didn't want to think about that. His son was alive, he had to be. He had already lost his wife to a dragon, he couldn't lose his son too.

They combed the forest as best they could, still no clues. until he heard one of his men give a shout. "Stoic! I've found something."  
He rushed over to see what had been found to stand still in shock.

Clothes. Hiccups clothes, torn to shreds on the ground. Dark stains covered most of the shredded fabric that could only be described as blood. If there had been anymore of it the rain would have washed it away.

He knelt down and picked a piece of green tunic in his hands. Everything he was wearing the last time he saw him was there. and for this much blood to be on just the clothing... there was no way he could be alive. His heart learched in pain and his ears rung in shock. reality felt distant as he took in what had happened. The painful truth tugged at his chest and stung his eyes as a tear slid down his cheek. He shakely stood up and screamed with all his might to the heavens.

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH! DAM YOU NIGHT FURY. DAM YOU TO HELL. HE WAS TOO YOUNG TO DIE. MY ONLY SON. WHEN I FIND YOU, I'LL GUT YOU ALIVE AND RELISH IN YOUR PAINED SCREAMS. THEN I'LL HANG YOUR SKIN IN MY SONS HONOR! I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

He fell back onto his knees before breaking down into tears. The chief was strong, he shouldn't cry. But his heart ached too much to care for pride. his son was gone. He'd failed his wife's wishes, he couldn't protect their son. Just like he couldn't protect her.

Gobber limped over to Stoic and rested a hand on his shoulder. No words were needed as he also began to cry over the boy he'd gotten to know less like just an apprentice and more like a son.

They'd get their revenge. They'd make that night fury pay.

* * *

**Poor hiccup, it's all a misunderstanding. will stoic find and kill him? will he hide well enough and escape? will he find a cure? you'll just have to wait and find out. :P**

**visitors - _snowflake_ - thanks for reviewing each chapter. your messages are so enthusiastic it pumps me up to get the next chappy done faster XD and i'm glad i did ruffnut well. hopfully she didn't slip out of character with all the careing in this chapter, but don't worry they'll be plenty of fun and daring stunts later :)  
**

** _ Lady_ - there won't be hicstrid in this fic i'm afraid. sorry. i do like the pairing, but it doesn't really fit into the story i have planned. plenty of the pairing out there though. **

**thx to - datubaman, Hiroshiboy and Csk214. welcome to the fic.**

And special thx to maximumride1444 and Breyannia for the continued support :)


	5. Fear

**AN- Heres chapter 5. enjoy :)  
**

**Disclaimer - i don't own HTTYD**

* * *

Ruffnut walked down into the cove with a small basket of fish on her back and a satchel of medical supplies attached to her waist. She hoped he was smart enough no to just come bounding out towards her. If she was the hunting party, he'd be a goner.

She made sure the coast was clear of any vikings before making her way towards the cave she'd first found him in. A perfect hiding spot.  
She looked inside and couldn't see anything. A wave of anxiety rushed over her. Had he left or worse, had something happened to him?

"Come here Blacky, it's me Ruffnut. It's safe to come out." She said gently. She'd come up with a rather simple name from the top of her head, but it seemed fitting. He was pitch black and the name sounded cute, like him.  
She heard some movement from in the cave and his big green eyes appeared in the darkness. She was so happy he was okay.

"I got some fish for ya." She said trying to encourage him out.  
He slowly came out limping on his injured leg.  
"That's a good boy."

She gave him a hug when he finally emerged.  
"i told you I'd come back"  
He started to sniff at the basket on her back. The raw fish smelt rather good. He was so hungry.

Ruff took off the basket and took out a fish.  
"Here,"she offered.  
It did smell nice for some reason. As a human he'd have found the smell of it repulsive. Fish were meant to be cooked, not eaten raw.

But as a dragon, only the sight of it seemed gross. Seeing it's dead white eyes looking at him creeped him out.  
He wasn't gonna eat it head first that's for sure. So he reached round to the tail. Ruffnut seemed to understand what he wanted and turned the fish around.

"I always thought dragons ate fish head first,you sure are strange Blacky" she wondered aloud.

Blacky? so she had named him. At least it wasn't a silly over exaggerated name like deathbringer or floppywings. So he didn't complain about it.

He took a bite out of the fish...it..it tasted amazing. Before he got a chance to chew on the half piece of fish he bit off though, his throat muscles automatically reflexed and swallowed it whole. He stepped back in shock. It felt so weird, yet so right to swallow it whole like that. His stomach growled for more of the delicious meal.

To his embarrassment, Ruffnut heard it."Aww, you really are very hungry huh."  
If dragons could blush he would be beat red right now. But his expression gave it away anyway. Head down, trying to look away from her while hiding his stomach with his paws.

"No need to be so shy," she laughed. She poured the rest of the basket out onto the grass.  
"Right, you eat that while i treat your wound okay?"  
He gave a hesitant nod before approaching the fish.

Ruffnut took off the temporary wrapping and began washing the wound with salt water, causing him to wince slightly. Then she got out some paste and began spreading some in the cut.  
"This is gonna hurt quite a bit," she said as she took out a needle and thread.

Hiccup jolted. _She_ was gonna stitch him up? Did she know what she was doing? Was the needle even sharp enough to pierce a dragons hide?  
"Hey it's okay. I've practised on my brother before while playing operation." she grinned.  
He didn't want to think about the horror that game entailed.

"I'll be as quick and gentle as i can okay? Completely opposite of when i stitched up Tuff." She giggled.  
The twins sure did like hurting each other.

With reluctance he let her do it. It would heal alot faster closed up after all and he didn't have any other way of stitching it.  
Surprisingly it wasn't as painful as he thought it would be. Just an annoying stabby achy pain, but it didn't take too long and she was soon applying more paste on top of it.

"Almost done." she said as she began bandaging the leg.  
"I also brought some painkiller. Just eat this herb. I can put it in a fish if you want"  
He gave a quick nod and she put it into one of the two fish remaining. He never could stand the taste of medicinal herbs.

He proceeded to eat the medicated fish. He'd gotten over the heads. they tasted the same as the rest of it so he just closed his eyes to escape the creepiness.  
But before he could eat the final one, he heard a branch snap in the near distances.

His head perked up, pupils narrowed and his frills moved back and forth trying to pinpoint the sound.  
"Blacky whats wrong?" asked Ruffnut. Worry filled her. Had the party come this close already?

Hiccup listened closely, he could hear muttering and clunky footsteps. It was a bunch of vikings. The hunting party he'd expected had arrived.  
He started to whine and panic.  
"Y-you've gotta hide." She said shakily.

He ran to the cave. He went inside as far as he could and tucked himself into a shaking ball. He was so scared, was this it, was he gonna die?  
Ruffnut threw the satchel, remaining fish and some rocks into the fish basket. She tied it tight and threw it into a deep part of the pond. Then she begun rubbing out the paw prints. She had to get rid of the evidence.

Blacky was well hidden for now, but any trace he'd been here would have them scour the cove until they found him. She knew they'd get here before she'd have time to leave, and she wasn't leaving him alone to face them anyway. So she began creating a believable alibi in her head. After checking for prints for the third time and dotting her own everywhere, the group were at the top of the cove and saw her.

"Ruffnut? what are you doing down there?" Boomed the chiefs voice. He was clearly enraged. Not with her though, It was directed at the night fury. But she'd never seen him so mad before, he couldn't have gotten that upset from a burn could he?

"I-I'm e-exploring," she stuttered. The rage he was giving off frightened her.  
"How did you get down there?"  
"I jumped." It was pretty much a normal thing for her and Tuff. and she did pretty much fall in here at first.

"JUMPED! Whats wrong with you! Are you trying to get yourself killed. How do you even intend to get out?"  
"I discovered a path down here. It's rather narrow though." She shouted up to them.

"Stay there, I'm coming down."  
"But your too big for the path."  
"We'll see about that."

He was determined to get down there, the cove looked like a perfect hiding spot. If he couldn't fit in the narrow path, he'd jump down like she did. He'd worry about getting back up later.  
But she was right, it was too narrow. So he walked back to where he was above the water and jumped.

Ruff was panicking on the inside,she wasn't expecting him to just jump down. How determined was he to kill Blacky? She began begging the gods he'd believe her alibi and not find him.

He swam to the shore, the weight of his now wet furs not bothering him in the slightest.  
"W-why did you want to come d-down here so badly chief?" She asked, trying desperately to keep her nerves under control.  
"I'm looking for the night fury. That...THAT DEMON KILLED HICCUP!" He shouted.  
Ruffnut was shocked.

"H-Hiccups dead?" She stuttered in disbelief. Hiccup always seemed so invincible. Sure he was weak, but whenever he was close to getting killed he'd somehow live through it. It was like the gods wanted him alive for some reason.

"We found his clothes torn to shreds," Stoic continued."Stained with blood in the forest. That night fury is the only dragon out here. And only a demon like that could have mauled him till there was nothing left but his blood and shredded clothing." His voice broke a bit at the last part.

No. That couldn't be it? From what she'd seen, Blacky was practically harmless. He wasn't some fierce deranged wild beast! Something else had to have killed him.

* * *

Back in the cave, Hiccup was panicking even more than before. He could hear the conversation between his dad and Ruff.

His dad had found his torn clothing and his blood. It must of happened when he'd transformed. The fact there wasn't even a body left made it even worse. And now his dad was giving Ruff doubts.

What if she gave him away? Maybe he should have told her who he was after all.

* * *

"Have you seen the night fury at all?" He said grabbing her Small shoulders in his strong hands.

Ruff's mind was racing. She could lie and protect Blacky, but what if he really was dangerous? What if he had killed Hiccup in such a horrific manner. She could be putting herself in danger of being torn to shreds.

But if she gave him up, he'd be killed and she'd never know the truth. Blacky could be innocent and she'd be responsible for his death. She wouldn't be able to live with herself. Not after she'd told him she'd protect him and she'd grown so attached already.

Stoics grip was getting painful.  
She made her decision and answered.

"No i haven't. And it's definitely not in this cove either."  
"How can you be so sure?" He said as he let go of her.

"I've been searching this place for hours now. I've looked in every nook and cranny and there isn't even a terrible terror to be found."  
"Why were you searching this place? I hope you weren't planning on taking that night fury on by yourself."

"N-Not at all sir. I only recently discovered this place and thought it would be a cool new hang out spot for me and Tuff. I was looking for some good places to set up traps before i showed it to him so he wouldn't know what hit him when he explored it too." There, she'd gotten her alibi out. Now hopefully he'd fall for it.

"Tch, just like you to do something like that."  
She grinned, he bought it.

"But even so, what were you thinking? Coming out into the forest with a night fury on the loose?"  
"I wasn't thinking sir, I'm a reckless idiot."

She knew the villagers saw her and Tuff as a bunch of idiots. But she didn't mind. People were easier to trick if they thought you were stupid.

Stoic let out a sigh, "Well I'm still gonna have a look around in case you missed something. Stay here. I'll have someone take you back to the village when I'm done. Make sure you actually do go home.

Dam. She thought she had him, but he was gonna look anyway. She could only hope he didn't find Blacky.

* * *

Hiccup was relieved she hadn't ratted him out. He'd make sure to thank her plenty if he got out of this alive.

He heard his father making his way towards the cave. He meshed himself close to the walls and floor the best he could. Spreading himself out to blend with the walls. He closed his bright eyes and stayed frozen still.

Instinct had kicked in to help him stay as well hidden and still as possible, despite how terrified he was.

* * *

Stoic looked into the cave. It was pitch black so he couldn't make out anything. It was also too small for him to climb all the way into. He turned away to face his fellow vikings on top the cliff face surrounding the cove. He signalled for a torch. If the night fury was in there, he didn't want to startle it into attacking again by shouting for one.

One of the vikings through a lit torch towards him. It came spiralling at great speed, but he caught it by the handle easily.  
He focused back on the cave and shoved in the torch as far as his arm could reach inside. He still couldn't see anything. The cave was deep.

"Ruffnut get over here." He beckoned.  
She jogged over quickly. "What is it chief?"

He clearly hadn't seen Blacky yet or he'd be more enraged and stabbing his sword in there she was sure.  
"I'm too big to see any farther in there. It's quite dangerous but since you clearly enjoy danger, go in there and have a look for me."

Relief filled her, she could easily lie about it being clear. she just hoped Blacky wouldn't make a sound when she went in there.

"With pleasure," she replied as he passed her the torch. She sauntered down into the depths of the narrow cave. When she reached the end, she could just barely see him blending into the walls, dead still.

"There's nothing down here." She called back to the chief. She could see Blacky's tense form relax abit from her report.  
She heard the chief give a frustrated sigh at the entrance.

"Come back up then." he said in disappointment. She could tell he was certain Blacky would be down here. He was right of course, but thanks to her he didn't know that.

She exited the cave and Stoic continued to search the cove.  
She put out the torch since it was no longer needed. There weren't anymore caves to explore in the cove.

Eventually he gave up and announced he would carry on with the search elsewhere.  
His men walked along the cliff abit until they were over dry land and hung down a rope for Stoic to climb.

"I'll just meet you at the top then," suggested Ruff as she started to turn towards the narrow path out.

"Oh no you don't," he said as he grabbed her left shoulder and turning her around. "I'm not letting you out of my sights. I need to make sure you get back to the village. We can't..." He trailed off for a second. A pained look on his face.

"We can't risk another death by that night fury, you don't even have a weapon on you. You're climbing the rope with me."

She nodded in understanding and followed him to the rope. The chief was clearly under alot of grief. He'd lost his son. She still couldn't believe Hiccup was dead though. Maybe he was still alive. Only his clothes and blood was found so maybe he was injured and naked somewhere.

She didn't know how right she was.

* * *

Hiccup didn't move from the safety of the cave. Ruff had left with his dad some time ago, but he was too afraid to leave.

What if someone was keeping watch? He couldn't risk it.

He moved his position only slightly so his leg felt more comfortable. The painkiller was wearing off and the wound was achy and sore. He'd wait till Ruff cam back, she'd be able to check if the coast was clear.

It was a whole week before she returned.

* * *

**AN- well i hoped you enjoyed it, tell me what you think. **

**also a small note on Hiccups size, his body is the size of a wolf incase you were trying to vizulise it. **

**flame101 - thx for reviewing. your post motivated me to finish this chapter. the lack of response from chapter 4 disheartened me a bit. i think somethinng was wrong with the site or something. i couldn't see my story at the top even hours after updating it. hopefully it won't happen with this chapter. :)**

**next chapter will be up in 1-2 days. milling out how to advance and sorting out the plot in my head currently. **


	6. Control

**AN- And here's chapter 6. **

**4000 words long. took me all day. really tired. thx for all the feedback on the last chapter guys, i got lots of reviews, new followers and faves. so happy :D**

**i hope you enjoy this chapter too. **

**Disclaimer - I don't own httyd**

* * *

"This sucks,"Groaned Ruffnut. "Why do they have to keep watch of us ALL THE TIME!" She shouted before slouching down.

"I think the real question is why I'm being watched with the rest of you guys!" Stated Fishlegs. "I wouldn't even try going into the forest. It's far too dangerous. I don't exactly want to be torn to shreds like Hiccup. Unlike the rest of you, who seem to want to go in there anyway."

The Teens were all sitting in the great hall having breakfast. Three days had passed since Ruff was sent home and a village watch had started. Preventing any of the teens going into the forest.

"Yeah who wouldn't?"Said Snotlout. "Killing the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself would have the girls _all_ over me."

Astrid punched him, "In your dreams lover boy."

"Or we could capture it," said Tuff excitedly.

"Why would would you want to capture such a dangerous dra- never mind, I'll never understand your recklessness." Sighed Fishlegs.

"But why would you?"asked Ruff. She was already finding it hard to keep up the viking facade as her fellow peers talked of killing her hatchling. She really hoped Blacky was okay, she wished she could go to him now but she couldn't get out of the village.

"Think about it. We could do what the Berserkers used to do with skrills. We could tie it up and use it as a weapon of mass destruction. Wouldn't that be awesome!" He cried jumping in his seat with excitement.

"Yeah i guess," was Ruff's reply.

"Woah! are you sick or something?" Asked Tuffnut. "It's not like you to not get excited over destruction."  
Oops, she'd gotten a bit too lost in her thoughts and dropped the facade.

"I-I mean... Yeah...Destruction. Lets go capture the night fury... use it as a weapon...and stuff." There was so little heart in her speech it sounded like really bad acting. The teens were looking at her funny.

"Maybe i am sick, I'm going home." And with that she left, too tired to act in front of them anymore. Sure she liked destruction and pranks as much as always. But her brothers idea of tying up Blacky and using him for his own selfish gain was cruel. Dragons had feeling too. But then, she was supposed to be a viking. Vikings shouldn't care about a dragon's feelings. They weren't even meant to have any from what her elders had taught her.

And yet she did. She didn't even know if other dragons were friendly like Blacky, but she still cared for them. Did that make her a traitor? Because she was starting to side with the dragons? The thoughts whizzing inside her brain were giving her a headache so she tried not to to think too much more about it and headed to her house.

She had to plan a way out of the village.

* * *

"I wonder whats wrong with Ruffnut, I've never seen her look so down before. She's usually so happy messing around with you Tuff." asked Astrid.

"I know, I'm always around her and she's never sad. Well apart from when we were kids. She'd always cry when i got near her or talked to her. It was weird."

"Was she afraid of you or something?" Asked Fishlegs.

"Why would she be afraid of me? I'm her brother."

"Exactly," grinned Astrid.

"Hey!"

The other three teens started laughing at him.  
"Oh come on it's not that funny."

* * *

As the morning turned to evening, the teens had all started devising their own plans to get into the forest over the next few days. All but Fishlegs of course who didn't want any part of it.

Astrid wanted to kill the night fury to restore honour to her family name.

Snotlout wanted to kill it for the fame and the ladies. To prove himself worthy and gain the title as the next chief of Berk.

Tuff wanted to capture it to use as a weapon and then Ruff, Ruff just wanted to get to Blacky and help him escape as soon as possible. It wasn't safe for him on this island and she couldn't protect him constantly.

* * *

Tuff stood next to a small herd of sheep. He planned to create chaos, then sneak into the forest while the adults were distracted. He held a torch in his hand. "This is gonna be great," he smirked.

He made sure a sheep towards the back was facing the way he wanted it to go and lit it's wool on fire. The sheep gave a panicked bleep and bolted, scaring the other sheep into running away from it. Some of the sheep bumped into the one on fire and caught fire themselves. Soon even a building was alight and panicked shouts were popping up everywhere to put the fire out.

"Sweet! Now to the forest." He yelled in triumph and made a run for it. Unfortunately, a sheep on fire ran into him as he nearly got to the clearing, setting his clothes on fire too.

"AHHH, that burns. Someone put it out putitoutputitout." He frantically yelled before Astrid came along and shoved him into a well.

A sizzling could be heard at the bottom. "Thanks Astrid. Now a, could you get me out of here?...Astrid?"  
She'd already left. Leaving him to get out on his own.

Next up was Snotlout. He decided to dig his way through. He started as close as he could to the forest without being seen to start digging.  
"This is a genius plan. Bet the others will be jealous they didn't think of it themselves. I really do amaze myself sometimes." He boasted to himself.

Hours in, he decided to see where he was. To his horror, he'd somehow dug in the wrong direction and was on the opposite end of the village. He tried again only to go round in a circle.

"Why can't i go the right way dam it!" He shouted. Unfortunately, this alerted one of the guards and he was then banned from touching any sort of digging item.

Astrid's turn. She waited until the cover of night and dressed herself in all black like a ninja.  
She hid behind buildings and snuck past the guards.

"The others are idiots for not trying to sneak in there under the cover of darkness." She whispered to herself. After some patients she made it in.

"Yes, i did it"  
She made her way in further feeling her way through the trees and trying not to trip.

"Ugh, i should have brought a torch, i can't see anything."

Unfortunately, she didn't make it any further as she stepped on a covered trap. She would have easily noticed it during the day, but since she couldn't see anything she fell straight into the hole.

"AHHHHH" she screamed hitting the bottom. She was lucky it didn't contain spikes.

It was too high to climb out of though. It was clear she wasn't finding that night fury today so she started shouting for help. She hadn't made it _that_ far from the village.

Next was Ruffnut. She decided to go for it by boat. No one was watching the boats since they clearly wouldn't think they'd try sailing to the forest. _Especially_ with the cliffs guarding the way up.

But she knew of a small sandbank on the North side of the island. It had an easier set of rocks she could make her way up.

It had taken a six days of waiting for the wind to go in the right direction. She didn't want the tide pulling her out to sea. Tonight was the night. She packed up some fish and medical supplies and was on her way without anyone realising she'd gone.

When She reached the sandbank and had climbed up, she decided to rest and wait for daylight. It wouldn't do her any good walking into traps in the pitch black like Astrid had.

* * *

With morning came the hunting party. They had returned from their long and fruitless search. They hadn't found even a sign that the night fury was there. Stoic started to think maybe it had flown off after all. If that was the case, it would most likely have gone back to it's nest.

"Welcome back Stoic. We're all sorry to here about Hiccup. Did you find the night fury at all?" Asked a female villager.

"Unfortunately no, couldn't even find any tracks. It may be out there still but for now I'm gonna set up a group to try for the nest again tomorrow."

"The nest? But no matter how many times we've tried, we never make it and only end up losing more men."

"WE HAVE TO TRY," he shouted. "No matter how many times it takes, we can't just do nothing. If we give up, they will still just keep coming to rob us of food and kill us. We need to finish them, before they finish us. There's also a chance the night fury could have flown off and we need to check the nest for it. I need to get my revenge on that beast for what it did to my son."

He stormed past the villagers who had started to gather.  
Snotlout ran up to his uncle, "Is the forest ban lifted then?"

"No!. For all we know it could still be out there. No one steps in there until it's dead." He stated. Making sure everyone got the message.

* * *

Ruffnut had once again made it to the cove. She made her way down the path and to the cave.  
Something was strange though, she expected to see some paw prints, but there were none. Surely he would have come out at some point to have a drink _right_?

She looked inside and gave a hesitant call.  
"B-Blacky? Are you in there? It's okay to come out."

It was silent for a moment before she heard a low growl.  
"It's okay. It's just me, Ruffnut."

She tried to enter to try and coax him out better.  
But just as she started shuffling in, she was shot backwards to the ground. Pain ebbed into her neck. She opened her eyes to see him on top of her, staring at her with his big eyes with a panicked expression. His claws were around her neck and she struggled to breath.

"P-please let go, Blacky. It's just me. I won't hurt you."

He hesitated for a while, breathing heavily. She was scared he was gonna kill her, maybe he wasn't as friendly as she first thought. But just then he finally let go and let out a sorrowful moan as he backed away. Guilty expression on his face as to apologise.

She coughed a few times before speaking. She could feel some blood dripping down from where he'd accidentally scratched her in his hold.  
"It's okay. I know you were scared. I forgive you."

He bounded up to her and wrapped his paws around her middle. Whining out what she figured was sorry.

"It's okay. i should be the one apologising. It took me so long to come back. I'm sorry. The village had me on watch with the other teens. They didn't want us going into the forest with a night fury on the loose. Not after what happened with Hiccup."

He looked up at her.  
"They think you did it. After hanging around you i doubted you'd be capable of something like that until just now when you pounced me."  
Hiccup backed up a bit, worried she was gonna turn on him.

"Ah don't worry. I haven't decided if your a threat or not yet. I wanted to ask you first. And don't lie to me okay!"  
She looked him in the eyes with a serious expression.

"Did you kill Hiccup?"

He quickly shook his head.  
A relieved sigh escaped her lips. "Okay, i believe you. You don't look like a very good lier anyway. But do you know what happened to him at all? Did you see anything?"

Hiccup hesitated for a second. He wouldn't be able to explain too well but he could give it a shot. So he nodded.  
Her eyes widened a bit, "You know!."  
He nodded again.

Before she could ask anymore questions though he started to feel dizzy. He'd been stuck in the cave for a whole week. He hadn't eaten anything and the only water he'd had was drizzle on the cave walls.

"H-hey are you okay," she cried rushing over to him. "You don't look so good. Didn't you come out at _all_ when i left?"  
He shook his head.

"Shit. Come here, I'll guide you to the pond."

He wobbled and stumbled over as Ruff tried her best to keep him up.  
"Now start slow or you'll throw up."

He already knew it was bad for someone with dehydration to drink water too fast, so he kept it slow like she said.  
"I also brought some fish and medical supplies for ya."

She took a look over at his leg to see how bad it must of gotten. The dressings hadn't been changed in a week after all.  
To her surprise, the dressing was gone. There was only the scar of what had happened there with the stitches still inside.  
"H-How?" She wondered aloud.

Hiccup decided to show her what he'd done by licking the wound.  
"You cleaned it yourself?"

He gave a nod. He'd eventually gotten irritated by the wrappings after a few days. The herb paste was starting to smell so he'd torn off the bandages and reluctantly licked the paste off. It had tasted vile, but he didn't want it getting reinfected. He soon found it healing faster than before making him wonder if _all_ dragon saliva had healing properties.

She proceeded to feed him the fish. "Take it slow with this too."  
So he did. He was already full after only two fish. He'd eat more as the day went on.

Ruff spent the rest of the day with Hiccup, it wasn't like she could go back to the village yet anyway. She doubted she'd get out again. They'd put extra watch on her when they realised she'd gotten in.

Hiccup spent most of the time sleeping off the food and eating. Taking a drink here and there. He was glad to finally get the rest. He had been awake most of the time during the week to remain alert of any danger.

Eventually night came and they both went into the cave to sleep and stay hidden in case anybody did come by.

* * *

Meanwhile on Dragon Island.

How did he end up here? He'd asked himself plenty of times over the years. He didn't like it here. He wished he could just leave. But whenever he tried, agonising pain jolted through his head like being struck by lightning until he turned back around. He knew it was the queens work. She'd never let a powerful dragon like himself escape her clutches. He'd been so determined to escape once to the point he blacked out from the pain. He'd found himself back on the island, rescued from falling to his death from another one of her mindless slaves.

He still remembered what had happened before he was under her control though. He'd been banished from his own nest. Why? Because he refused his kings wishes of having his sister marry the prince.

His nest was a proud race of Dusk strikers. Unlike most dragons, they had their own society of ranks and royalty. Most would be honoured to be offered as a husband or bride for the royal family. But he and is sister were not like most. The prince was a vial dragon.

He looked down on everyone else in the nest and used his status to get away with anything. He once organised a show where hatchling fought to the death. He did it for his own amusement because he was bored. The victors were never the same playful hatchlings they used to be. They were traumatised and violent after watching their peers scream in pain and choke on their own blood by their own paws.

That's why he couldn't give his sister over to him. Their parents had passed when they were young so he was responsible for her. But the prince couldn't take no for an answer. He'd fallen for his sisters beautiful dark purple hide and deep Blue eyes. He always got what he wanted.

So he challenged the prince. He knew he was stronger but the prince would use dirty tricks against him and would get away with it in plain sight. His sisters freedom was on the line. She'd begged him not to give her away to that monster. He'd make sure the prince wouldn't have her.

The fight was messy and violent. He'd gotten a number of hits on the prince but the prince had given more. He hadn't made it a fair fight. He'd had his challengers wings bound to his body. No one could stand up to his orders.

However after a good while of bloodshed, he finally had an opening and he struck it hard. He had bit into the princes neck and ripped out his throat!

Killing in a spar was against the rules but he didn't care. The prince had already broken the rules plenty of times and he wanted pay back. The other dusk strikers had laughed at him all tied up and unable to properly defend himself. Now they stood in shock at what he had done. His sister had rushed over, ready to defend her brother. Killing the prince was an outrageous crime. He'd most likely be sentenced to death.

The king stared down at the siblings, enraged of what had happened to his son.  
"Please! Don't kill him. He's all i have left." Begged his sister.

"Very well, I'll offer him something worse." Stated the king.  
Suddenly, guards grabbed a hold of her. One held his sharp talons up to her neck.  
He started to panic.

"Please don't hurt her, you can kill me. Just let her live."

"ENOUGH!"The king boomed."I will make you an offer. Either she dies here and now, or you leave. You shall never return and your name and title shall be stripped from you. If you disobey this banishment, your sister and any offspring she has, shall be killed in front of you. Do i make myself clear?"

It hurt. Not being allowed to see his kind ever again was worse than death to a dusk striker. They were a sociable race that lived for each other. If separated for very long periods of time, they were known to die slowly of loneliness.

Even if his sister tried to fly after him or escape, the king wouldn't allow it. Just like the Queen, he could send pain jolting through ones head if he didn't want them to leave.

He'd never see his sister again. But at least she'd be alive.

"Okay, i accept your offer of banishment. But please. Let me say goodbye to my sister first."  
"Very well," he gave a nod to the guards who let her go.

She ran to her brother and they engaged in a tight hug.  
"I'll miss you so much Big brother." She cried, tears staining her cheeks.

"I'll miss you too Lana. Just promise me you won't let them force you to marry someone you don't love."  
"I will, I'd rather die than let that happen."  
"Then make sure to find someone to fall in love with soon because i don't want you to die." He said as he also started to cry.  
"I will. I love you big bro."  
"I love you too sis."

And with that they parted. Nothing else was said as he took off, wounds untreated, into the dangerous wilderness outside the dusk striker territory. His heart clenched with the reality that he'd never see he sister Lana ever again.

* * *

It was a few months after his banishment, that he had found himself in the Archipelago that surrounded Berk. He'd just happened to go there on his travels, in search of other banished dusk strikers.

But it was then that it had happened. A Beckoning noise struck his ears. He couldn't shake it off. It invaded his mind and commanded him to follow it. Before he knew it, he was on a volcanic island obeying a gigantic dragon known as the queen. He couldn't stop himself obeying her orders to attack viking villages. To stay on that forsaken island. Why wasn't he strong enough to resist her siren song.

That's where he found himself now, years later. No other dusk strikers had been lured into her trap, making him wonder if there were any others around at all.  
That is until he overheard a rumour spreading about the nest.

"Is it true you saw a night fury hatchling?" Asked a female gronkle.  
"I think so, it was Pure black with frills on it's head just like the one here." Replied a nightmare.

They'd seen a night fury? From what he'd learnt here. A night fury is what the vikings called his kind. Most of the dragons on the island had grown up near vikings and had believed the names the vikings called them to be what they were. They'd completely forgotten the original names of their species generations ago.

He crawled down the rock he had been resting on to talk to this nightmare.  
"What's this i hear about a night fury hatchling?" He asked.

"O-Oh hey there night fury, "the nightmare stuttered in surprise. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough to hear you've apparently seen a hatchling of my kind. When was this?"

"Several days ago."

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I-I didn't want to bother such a powerful dragon with only a trivial speculation. I was going to confirm my facts on the next raid."

"Raid! So he's on a viking island?" He said, anger starting to seep in.

"Y-y-yes."

He swiped the nightmare over the head.  
"FOOL! You just left a defenceless hatchling on an island full of vikings! I should just tear out your throat right now."

"P-p-p-please spare me. I'll do anything."

He gave an angry growl before answering, "What island did you see him on?

"I-It's a place called berk, few hours flight east of here."

"So you were in the same raid party as me and you didn't think of telling me there and then!?"

"S-Sorry, a viking attacked me and i flew off without thinking."

"Get out of my sight before i change my mind about sparing you"

And with that the nightmare and the other dragons with it ran off.  
"Cowards," he huffed.

He decided to head off straight away. Hoping the hatchling was still alive. The queen wouldn't stop him going towards an island under her control, it was only when he tried to leave the Archipelago that the pain would set in.

So with that, his form disappeared into the clouds, in an attempt to remain hidden during the day.

* * *

**AN- Yay toothless XD i know quite a few of you were waiting for him to make an appearance and here he is. He'll be meeting hiccup in the next chapter. **

**i tried hard to make his backstory make sense so tell me if it's too confusing and what i should change if anything needs changing. **

**visitors review **

_**snowflake - don't worry, toothless will be doing just that next chapter. you're good at predicting. With ruff's stitching i probably should have said it turned out jagged and not too neat. she can stitch like toothless can draw. just cause you can do it doesn't make you good at it. haha.**_

_**lovelies - mmm, not really. i already have a sort of plan for a cure, but my plans can switch and change so i'm not saying what my idea is yet. At first i wasn't thinking of this being a Hicstid fic, but currently debaiting it. It might happen in the future but no promises. **_

**Thx to everyone else who reviewed, i really appriciate it. :)  
**

**next chapter will be up in 1-2 days.**


	7. Run

**AN- Here's chapter 7. Thx everybody for the reviews and also extra thx for those longer ones. i read and appriciate every one of them. 3**

** Time for Toothless to save the day. enjoy :)**

* * *

Ruffnut awoke, warm and comfy - considering she'd slept in a cave.  
Hiccup had snuggled close to her, still in the depths of sleep. He was finely sleeping easy after the long week of being alone and scared in the cave.

She felt reluctant to wake him in his peaceful state, but danger still lurked in the air and she needed to start getting him ready to escape. He'd had plenty of time to recover from his ordeal the day before, so it was time to start getting him into shape.

She rocked him gently at first, ebbing him out of his dreaming.  
He opening his eyes and gave a big yawn. Sleepy eyes looking into hers.

"Aww, you're so cute. Come on sleepy head time to get up." She said.

She crawled out from his warm comfort and exited the cave. It was early morning and she could feel the cool air brush against her skin.  
Hiccup soon followed her out, having a stretch at the exit. He stretched rather like a cat, in Ruff's opinion.

"We're gonna get you using those wings today since you clearly don't know how to use them let alone fly." She stated.

Hiccup looked at his droopy wings moving them a bit. He did need to get used them at some point. He didn't know how long he'd be stuck like this, if not forever. A downed dragon was a dead dragon.

"Okay, now try to lift and stretch them as much as you can. The more you use them the more control you should have over them. It's like learning to swim. It's hard at first but the more you practice the better you get. It would be better if I could just throw you off the cliff though."

He looked a little scared at that prospect. He'd most likely break his legs or even die trying that, unless it was over water - but he still didn't like the sound of it.

"It's the way I learnt to swim see. Tuff tossed me into the water when I was six and I soon learnt how to swim and keep my head above the water before I drowned. I think it was instinct or something. Although he ended up looking more disappointed than proud. I wondered why? Until I shoved him in after and then I knew why. It was hilarious. He ended up drowning and a nearby fisherman gave him mouth to mouth. His reaction was priceless." She laughed. "He wouldn't stop washing his mouth for the entire day."

Hiccup started chuckling too, he could only imagine what the look of pure horror on Tuff's face would have looked like.

"Alright, enough with the stories, get to work."

So he did, He tried feeling for the new muscles in his back and moving them. As he got used to the lower ones he began being able to move the ones going through his wings. It was hard going though and took a full hour before he could fully stretch each wing out and fold it to his sides. They felt a lot more comfortable folded than the previous drooping. He also practiced with his tail. First moving the long appendage then moving on to the individual fins.  
It was mid afternoon before he took a break.

"You're doing very well, I'm impressed. You're a smart boy Blacky." She praised.

She began petting and scratching him as a reward.  
Hiccup was in heaven, who knew this good feel so goood~. He rolled over so she could pet his stomach and purred in content.  
They bathed in the sun for a while, enjoying its gentle warmth before Ruff got back to her feet.

"Right, come on Blacky, chase me. And try flapping your wings as you're doing it. You gotta build up your stamina if you're gonna fly." She grinned before running away from him.

He leapt up, gave his wings a stretch and bounded after her - wings flapping all the while.

* * *

Toothless could see the island in his sights. Being the fastest dragon in the area, he'd made it in just two hours.

He kept up high in the clouds so the vikings wouldn't spot him. He became invisible in the night's sky, but in the day he stood out like a black dot on a piece of white paper.

He swerved towards the wild area, away from the settled village. He'd start looking in the dense forest. It was the best place to hide and if the hatchling was smart, he'd be in there. The nightmare didn't tell him how old the hatchling looked, so he didn't know if he was looking for a unknowing baby or an experienced child. He could only hope it was the latter.

He landed silently, crouching among the shadows of the trees. He listened for anything threatening and any dusk-striker cries.  
He could definitely smell vikings in the air, mixing in with the smells of nature.

Then he heard it, a small warbling and chuckling sound. Definitely dusk-striker. Although, what confused him was the viking sounds close to him. He didn't sound scared or threatened. He sounded like he was having fun. Why would he be having fun with a viking around?

He quickly made his way over to it.  
He was as quiet as possible as he made his way to the edge of what appeared to be a cove. What he saw, shocked him!

The viking was getting chased by the young dusk-striker, but she was laughing and unarmed. When the dusk-stalker caught up to her, he pounced but instead of killing her, he seemed to be play fighting with her! She pushed him off and then she was the one chasing him!

A voice screamed at him in his head.**_ 'kill her. This isn't natural. She's clearly only being friendly with him to earn his trust for her own gain. She'll treat him like a pet. Chain him up and make him do her bidding. Clip his wings so he can't fly away. And when she grows bored of him, she'll kill him like a helpless dog. Stop her before it's too late! Bring him back to the nest"_**

Toothless' eyes glazed over._"As you command my queen."_

But just as he was about to do so he was hit on the head with a rock. It snapped him out of his trance.  
_"Ow! W-What. What was I doing?"_ He asked himself confused.

"I thought I saw a night fury, I did I did." Cackled the witch. She was up on a tree branch, over looking Toothless.

Circe had found Hiccups hiding place only a few hours earlier. She'd been hunting for him ever since he'd run off but - like stoic - she couldn't find any traces of him. That was until she'd been walking around the forest that morning and had heard him. She'd been spying on them since then and was waiting for them to retreat back to the cave later. That's when she would disguise herself and send rumour to stoic the night fury had been spotted in the cove and was sleeping in the cave. She wanted to make sure he didn't get away this time. But then this adult night fury had made its appearance. Perhaps lured in by the sounds of one of its kind. They were rare after all.

It was clearly not happy seeing a viking near it and was about to crash in there and spoil her plans. She couldn't have that so, she threw a rock at it to get its attention. Spells would be too flashy. She didn't want to alert Hiccup and that girl to her presence.

Toothless growled at her and ready to fire a blast at her. She threw another rock. "Ah ah ah, wouldn't want to alert the villagers now would we? I wonder how that hatchling would fair against an entire tribe of vikings.

Toothless didn't want that happening. Even _he_ would have trouble against that many opponents.  
"Let's take this elsewhere," she said before dashing from branch to branch. She was rather agile for an old woman.

Toothless chased after her. The hatchling wasn't in any true danger at the moment but this witch rubbed him the wrong way. His instincts screamed at him to get rid of her, there was something evil and unnatural about her! Killing her took priority.

* * *

Back at the village, the teens had gathered in a circle outside Snotlouts house.  
"Has anyone seen Ruff today? She didn't wasn't in her bed when I got up today!" Asked Tuffnut.

"Nope, haven't seen her,"Replied Astrid. "You two see her?"

Fishlegs and Snotlout both shook their heads.  
"Maybe she made it into the forest," suggested Snotlout.

"I dunno. She didn't really seem that interested in the night fury." Stated Astrid.

"Or maybe that's what she wanted you to think." Said Tuff.

"What makes you say that?" Asked Fishlegs.

"Manipulation is one of the many useful skills needed to trick someone. Me and Ruff are experts."

"But why would she want to trick us?" Asked Astrid

"She tricked us!" Cried Tuffnut.

"Yeeeah. You were the one who said it." Said Fishlegs.

"I did? Well whatever, she probably just wants the night fury for herself. I knew she liked my plan. Fake disinterest so she didn't have to share. It's the stuffed yak all over again!" He sighed.

"Yak? Oh nevermind i don't wanna hear it. If she got in there then she's got a head start. I think we should work together to get in this time, then split our separate ways after." Summed up Astrid.

"As much as I hate working with you guys - except you Astrid - I accept this plan. I'm sick of trying and failing. I need to kill the night fury that killed Hiccup."

"Aww, you do care," cooed Fishlegs."Here I thought you didn't love your cousin."

"SHUT UP, i don't! i mean i do...i did...but i don't. Agh shut up." He yelled before sulking away from the group who had begun giggling at him.

"Hey you don't think she hasn't returned because she's dead do you? I mean Hiccup started off missing and then we're told he's dead. Torn to pieces by the night fury. Which is what she's gone looking for on her own." Said Tuffnut, worry in his voice. Sure he teased her and they beat each other up, but they still loved each other. He didn't actually want her to die or anything.

"I'm sure she's fine Tuff," Astrid reassured. "Hiccup was weak and useless with a weapon. Ruff can handle herself and is rather resilient from what I've seen you two get up too."

"Yeah you're right. She wouldn't die as easily as Hiccup. Now what should the plan be?" Tuff asked, cheering up a bit.

* * *

Toothless kept chasing the witch further into the forest. He was sure the vikings wouldn't notice anything now. So he fired a blast at her. She dodged and landed on the ground.

"So you want to fight eh?" She grinned as she got out her wand. "Take THIS."

Light blasted out her wand but toothless dodged. And he was glad he did as the spell hit a tree and blew the trunk apart. This person was powerful,he'd never seen a human that could fire a blast like a dragon. He had to be careful, as to not get hit. He wasn't at his full potential on the ground, but he could manage. As more spells shot his way he found out that they came from the strange stick she was holding. If he could get rid of that, she'd be defenceless.

He dodged again and lunged for her head. She side-stepped and cut his hide with a hidden knife. He howled in pain but proceeded to lunge again, and again. When she went out of reach he fired a blast. But it was clear she was growing tired. Her breathes grew heavier with each blast she made. Toothless figured she must have a shot limit like dragons, she was running out of fuel for the fire.

She had started using only the knife now which he dodged easily. A small weapon like that wasn't a threat to him, it had just caught him off guard last time.

"Dam it, stay still and die already you beast" She cried. Her spells were powerful but it didn't mean much if they couldn't hit. The night fury was just too fast for her.

He slashed her with his claws and bit into her arm. She screamed with pain.

He was about to finish her off but suddenly... he heard a cry.  
The hatchling was in danger! He had to protect it!

In his momentary distraction the witch switched to her uninjured arm and shot a spell. He didn't dodge fast enough and it skimmed his tail, tearing into his left tail fin.

Toothless let out a shriek and made a final lunge for her. He tore into her neck, crushing her windpipe and choking her on her own blood.

The witch was dead at last. Grey eyes clouded over as they stared into the sky. But Toothless couldn't enjoy his victory just yet as he had a hatchling to save.

* * *

The teens had done it, they'd gotten in. They're plan had worked perfectly.

They had Fishlegs distract the guards since he didn't care about making it inside. He had run around screaming 'night fury'. Lying that he'd seen it in the village. The guards had gone on a panic looking this way and that. Even stoic was joining in on the goose chase.

With focus off the teens, they had made a run for it into the forest. A few guards must have seen them but most likely didn't see the harm in it if the night fury was in the village and not the forest - the reason of stopping them going inside in the first place.

They split up to search in different directions. Who ever found it got to do what they wanted to it. Whether kill it or capture it.

By the time the vikings had realised Fishlegs had cried wolf, the teens were already too deep into the forest to stop.

* * *

Astrid trekked through the thick undergrowth of the forest, dusting off ticks as they nipped at her leggings. She'd never really gone too far into the depths of the woodland before, simply having no real need too. She usually stayed close to the village when she practiced with her axe.

There were too many blood sucking bugs for her liking like the ticks, flees and midges. They just fueled her anger and made her want to slam her axe into something. That something would be the night fury this time and not a tree.

Then she heard something! She hid behind a tree rather than crouching in the tick and flee infested grass.

The sound was definitely dragon and it was coming from further up ahead. She snuck up quietly, hiding among the trees just in case it jumped out and saw her.

The sounds led her to a drop. She reluctantly went into a crawl. It was better to get bitten by the insects than a dragon.  
She scuttled over to the edge and let out a gasp.

"Ruffnut?" She whispered.

Ruffnut was running after the night fury that was flapping its wings madly - trying to escape. Of course being Ruffnut she was laughing like an idiot. But...where was her weapon? Maybe she'd been fighting it a while and had lost it?

Suddenly she pounced on it and it let out a shriek. It flipped her over and...was biting into her arm! She had to help her, her mind screamed. Not seeing from her distance that no blood was spilled.

They were only play fighting.

* * *

She rushed around the edge of the cove, looking for a way down. All of a sudden, Snotlout appeared in front of her and she ended up crashing into him.

"Woah! Astrid. Didn't know you liked me that much." Snotlout remarked as she'd ended up straddling him.

She swiftly punched him in the face, "Get out of my way!" She yelled and continued to run.

Snotlout chased after her. "Whats the hurry? Did you spot the night fury." He asked excitedly.

"YES! And it's attacking Ruffnut. She's unarmed."

"What?! We have to help her."

"What do you think I'm doing, hurry up." They reached a narrow pathway that must have led down toward the cove.

They quickly made their way down and rushed toward the night fury that was _still_ on top Ruffnut.  
Astrid let out a battle cry and threw her axe at it.

Hiccups eyes turned to slits and he dodged, instinctively letting out a growl.

Snotlout grabbed Ruff and held his weapon out, guarding her.

"What are you guys doing here?!" She cried.

"Saving you babe, what do you think?" Replied Snotlout.

"W-wait, you don't understand."

Astrid grabbed her axe and tried to slash Hiccup.  
He backed up and dodged the swings the best he could. _"Stop Astrid please. I wasn't hurting her."_ He begged, knowing she couldn't hear him.

"Die dragon!" She yelled, a blood crazed look in her eyes.

He dodged again and made a run for it. Snotlout tried swinging his hammer at Hiccups head and he only just avoided it - the hammer skimming a frill. He'd made it past them and dashed to the exit. Luckily he was small enough to make it through the narrow passage. He kept running, Astrid and Snotlout hot on his heals. He was fast, but he was also tired. He'd spent most of the day running around with Ruff and exercising his wings. They ached from the lack of use but even still, he tried to get himself in the air. He could only manage a hover. He figured his lack of lift was something to do with the back fins. He hadn't practiced enough with them yet!

Tuffnut suddenly came out of nowhere and slashed a light cut into Hiccups shoulder with his spear. He gave out a cry out of shock._ "Leave me alone."_ He cried.

Soon after, he thought he heard something in the distance. It sounded like dragon screech. Were there other dragons in the forest? But he couldn't think about it for too long as The other two caught up. Ruffnut was running behind them, desperately trying to stop them.

"Please don't kill him!" She begged.

"If you wanna capture him Ruff, you're gonna have to get to him before me."Snotlout grinned. He and Astrid simply thought that - like Tuffnut- she wanted to keep him as a weapon. They had no idea she was trying to tell them he meant no harm.

"Just put down your weapons, he won't hurt you!"

"We're not falling for your tricks Ruff," stated Astrid.

Hiccup ran for his life. He was so disoriented by fear, he didn't realised where he was heading until he came out into a clearing.  
It was the village!

He'd only run into more danger.  
The vikings saw him and charged. After the goose chase, they already had nets ready for capturing a dragon. One threw it on top of him in his frozen state.

"Hold him down, I'll have the honour of killing it!" Bellowed Stoic.

Vikings dog piled him. Their heavy weight crushing his small form to the ground.

_"Please don't do it, please. Dam it, if only i could talk like a human?"_ He pleaded. In a quick thought he tried to sound out 'stop'. But unless you were specifically hearing for the word, it just sounded like another dragon sound.

Stoic readied his sword, posed to strike Hiccups stomach.

_"At least I'll get to see mum again, my soul is still human right?"_

But just as Stoic went to strike forward, a shriek was heard and he was sent flying backwards as a black dragon pounced on him and bit hard into his shoulder.

The speed it had traveled, knocked the sword right out the chiefs hand and caused him to fall quite far back despite his size. He gave a cry of pain as sharp teeth dug into him. Another viking swung their hammer at its head to get it off the chief. The dragon let go and dodged back. It leapt over to the young night fury, scattering away the other vikings.

It happened so fast, everyone just ended up staring in shock.  
Another night fury! Larger than the previous one.

It stood protectively over the smaller one, still tied up in the netting. It's pose screamed threatning as it was - wings wide out and legs splayed, face in a scowl. not to mention the growling. Everyone stayed back, getting too close caused it to screech and snap. A clear _'Back off or i'll kill you'_

The teens emerged from the forest. Staring in shock at the new arrival. They'd seen - or more like felt - a fast blur pass by them. They weren't expecting another night fury though, and so much bigger than the one they were chasing.

"So does that mean that small ones just a baby then? And that big ones the angry parent?" Asked Gobber, stating what most were thinking.

"Looks like it." replied Stoic, holding a hand on his heavily bleeding shoulder. "Perhaps it wasn't the young one that killed Hiccup after all. This one looks far more dangerous."

Ruffnut stared at the adult nightfury. Blacky had said he didn't kill Hiccup but said he knew what had happened to him. Did he mean that this was the one to kill Hiccup? On top of that, he said that he didn't have parents. So who was this night fury to him? Why hadn't he shown up before?

Toothless, satisfied no one dared to attack him or the hatchling started tearing off the netting. Making sure to snap at anybody who thought an opputunity had opened for attack. He wouldn't let them hurt the young one.

_"It's gonna be okay. I'm getting you out of here."_ Said toothless.

_"I can't fly yet!"_He cried

_"Why!? You look old enough to have fledged?"_

_"M-my parents died before they could teach me." _He'd tell him the truth later. This dragon was willing to rescue him and he wasn't going to ruin his chances to escape.

Toothless gave a frustrated growl before answering.  
_"I'll carry you then. I'll teach you when we're safe."_

To the onlookers all they could hear were growls, clicks and grunts as the older dragon got the younger free.  
When he was free, he just coward beneath the older one like a scared child.

Toothless grabbed a hold of Hiccup in his front paws. He gave a loud warning screech before flapping his wings and hovering in the air.  
Without warning, Ruff suddenly bolted towards the two dragons. It was so sudden no one had time to grab her.

"RUFF!" Astrid yelled, being the first to see her dash.

Ruff leapt up and clung to Hiccups right hind leg. He gave a cry in alarm alerting toothless who proceeded to fly higher. He shrieked at her, telling her to get off.

_"Let go you filthy viking." _He warned, ready to toss her off.

_"Wait, don't hurt her!_ _She cared for me."_ Hiccup cried back.

_"She's a viking!"_

_"It doesn't matter, she's got a strong grip! Just go for now and we'll deal with it later. She's not even armed"_ He reasoned.

Toothless gave a snort of disapproval but did as the hatchling wished. He couldn't stay here any longer or he'd get knocked down by one of their strange string and rock weapons. He'd seen it happen plenty of times on raids and he didn't want it happening to him. His pride wouldn't stand for it. So he lifted himself higher and flew off, away from the island.

"RUUUUUUFFFFF!" Screamed Tuffnut.

"TUUUUUUUFFFF!" Ruffnut screamed back.

She'd most likely never see her brother again. She was being carried off by a hostile dragon to Odin knows where.

Why had she jumped up to Blacky? She didn't even think, she'd just moved. Her motherly instincts had kicked in. She had wanted to get him away from the island but a the same time, she didn't want to let him go. She'd fallen in love with him. She had to make sure nothing happened to him. She had to protect him.

Tears stung her eyes as she watched the only home she'd ever known, fade into the distance.

* * *

**AN- First off, i have had a good long think about where the story is going. i spent until the early hours of yesterday thinking, i thought in the shower, i thought on the bus and back to job seekers, and i also thought before i could start on this chapter today. i pretty much thought until my brain hurt.  
**

**It's hard to choose where the story should go when you have your own loose plans and a bunch of requests that constradict eachother. i know i can't make everyone happy but i hope you can still enjoy my fic regardless of the direction it takes. **

**i'm not doing Hicstrid for certain now for two reasons. It would be difficult to place into the story now and also, it's a very common pairing most likely because it's canon. So theres the possibility of Ruffcup. But we'll see how it goes since i feel i've sunken her into having a family love for him than anything romantic. **

**The rest of the plans i'm keeping a secret for now, don't want to spoil any surprises after all. i'll discuss why i came up with some of these ideas as they appear in the story.**

**Also, _Guest (the last one to review - would be helpful to put a name down) - _thanks for pointing out the first chapter as rather weak. i know it's not the best. it was my first time writing anything at all. but i would like to improve it, so if you have any suggestions - apart from the grammar and spelling errors which i'll correct eventually- please do say :) i'm glad you are enjoying the later chapters though. thx for the support. oh and no, don't worry, it won't be too negative when he tells him. **

**And again, thx to all my other reviewers. The new followers and the faves. **

**next chapter in 1-2 days again. Although it's usualy 1.**


	8. Crash

**AN- Welcome to chapter 8. This one took me longer to get out due to writers block, sorry. But i did some fan art to make up for it. you can find the link in my profile.  
**

**Anyway, i hope you enjoy :)**

_"Text"** - **_dragons speaking_**  
"Text"** - _queen dragon speeking

* * *

Gobber watched as the dragons' forms grew smaller as they flew into the distance - Ruffnut in tow. He didn't know what to make of what had just happened.  
Another night fury had just come out of nowhere - injuring Stoic. The size of it had shown the previous one to be a meer hatchling. It had then gone to take off with the younger one only for Ruffnut to latch onto it. What had she been thinking!?

Surely she didn't think her weight alone could bring it back to the ground. What drove her to trying to prevent it from escaping. He doubted she wanted revenge like Stoic. From what he'd seen, the teens hadn't cared about Hiccup. They'd wanted to kill the night fury for their own gains. Not to avenge their fallen peer.

If she'd just been pulling a crazy stunt like usual, wouldn't her brother have joined in?  
He couldn't make sense of it. He'd ask the teens about it later.

There was another thing on his mind though. The young night fury had looked scared. But dragons didn't have feelings like fear. They were mindless beasts that only thought of survival. Not to mention the way it had looked at him and his fellow vikings had looked familiar.

Those big green eyes full of pleading. Like he'd done something wrong and was preparing for a scolding he couldn't talk his way out of since no one would listen to him. It reminded him so much of Hi- ...No! That was impossible. It was just a coincidence. He was still mourning over Hiccup and his mind was playing tricks on him. That had to be it!

Putting his thoughts to rest, he walked over to the teens. Stoic was being carried off to the Healers and didn't really need his help for now, so he might as well question the kids while their memories were still fresh.

Fishlegs had an arm over Tuffnut as the latter teen was hunched over,sobbing his eyes out into his arms. The teens were trying to comfort him, despite still being in shock of what happened themselves.

"I don' mean to intrude, but could i ask you guys some questions?" Asked Gobber as he approached them.

"Not now Gobber! Can't you see Tuff's upset about losing his sister? He needs time to grieve." Stated Astrid. Anger at the interruption clear from her voice tone.

"I understand tha', but i need to ask while your memories are still fresh."

"Like what?" Asked Snotlout, crossing his arms.

"No matter 'ow much i think abou' i', i can' make sense of why Ruffnu' did wha' she did. Did you no'ice her acting strangely at all? Did she say or doing something unusual that would provoke such a drastic action from 'er?"

The teens wondered for a moment when a spark lit up in Astrid's head.

"Yeah, i did notice something actually." She said, gaining the attention of the other teens.

"When we were chasing after the night fury, she was begging for us to stop, that the night fury meant no harm and we should drop our weapons. I thought she was just tricking us, but now that i think about it more... When i first saw her with the night fury in the forest, she was chasing it. That's not what was strange though. She was unarmed but laughing like it didn't matter. She even managed to catch it! But then it over powered her and started mauling her!"

"Huh!? Are you sure? I didn't see any blood when she jumped on it back here." Replied Gobber.

"Yes I'm sure! I ran to help her straight away. Luckily she was still alive when i got there."

"Hey I remember something about that actually. " Stated Snotlout. "I was with you when we went to rescue her and that dragon was still on her. But there really wasn't any blood. I only saw some bruises when I was guarding her."

"But it was definitely biting her arm!" cried Astrid. "How could she not get injured by that?"

Tuff had stopped crying while listening to the conversation. He also had not understood his sisters actions. Even though she would deny it, she was scared of dragons. There was no way she would have gone _near _one without a way to defend herself.  
Points in the conversation started piecing themselves in his mind like a puzzle coming together.

"She was play fighting." He blurted out. The others looked at him like he'd grown a second head. There was no way that was the answer, right?

"How would that even be possible Tuff? Dragons are violent beasts. Play isn't in their vocabulary. They don't have the emotions for having fun and being happy." Stated Astrid.

"But think about it. She said you should drop your weapons because he meant no harm right? Maybe they're only violent when you are threatening to them? Maybe she had tamed it and was playing with it like a pet." Replied Tuff.

"Why and how would she make it a pet?" Asked Astrid.

"Well how, I don't know. She has the answer for that. But I do know why." He said starting to get excited.

"It's just like my idea of using a dragon as a weapon. But as a loyal pet, it might even let you _ride_ it!"

"RIDE IT!?" Gobber and the rest of the teens exclaimed.

"Wish I'd thought of it. She took my idea a step further. " Finished Tuff

"Why in Thors name would you want to ride a dragon!?" Asked Gobber.

"I agree, that sound terrifing," Said Fishlegs shakily.

"I know right! imagine how fun it would be just to fall out of the sky! You'd be falling for ages, watching the ground get steadily closer and closer before...BAM! -"

Fishlegs was listening with a scared expression and jumped at the 'Bam' "Agh I don't wanna hear anymore, " he cried as he clutched his ears.

"- Dragon swoops you to safety." Tuff continued.

"I don't know about the falling, but having a powerful dragon under your control does sound pretty awesome." Said Snotlout. Now impressed by the idea.

"Now 'old on lads, I've been figh'ing dragons for years and I'll tell you now. They aren' tameable." Gobber stated in a stern tone.

"Have you ever tried?" Asked Tuff.

"Well no bu-"

"Then how do you know? Tuff interrupted. Arms now crossed with a smirk.

Gobber sighed, it was no good wasting his energy on this. He'd just let them learn the hard way.  
"Fine! Tomorrow I'll let you have a go with the terrible terror, the leas' dangerous of the dragons we 'ave. If you can tame I' I'll do whatever you want me to."

Tuff and Snotlout looked excited at the prospect of taming a dragon and making Gobber do what ever they wanted when they did.

"'owever. If you fail, you all 'ave to clean ou' and feed the captured dragons for a month and never mention taming dragons again." He stated.

"Deal!" Tuffnut said without hesitation and held out his hand. He and Gobber shook on it and the bet was set.

"Are you sure you're okay now Tuffnut?" Asked Fishlegs. " You were grieving over your sister only a short while ago."

"Hmm, yeah I'm fine now. If she tamed it then I doubt she's dead. I'm sure it wouldn't have killed her."

"But what about the larger one? She didn't tame that one and it looked far more dangerous. It was most likely the one that killed Hiccup."

Worry washed over Tuff's features for a moment before he spoke, "I-Im sure she'll be fine. She already tamed one night fury. I'm sure she can do it again."

But it was clear he wasn't too certain in his words. They could only hope she was okay.

* * *

Ruffnut was terrified. They'd been flying for what felt like an hour now. Her arms were aching badly and she was afraid she'd fall into the freezing ocean, _very_ far below her. She briefly wondered if she'd even survive the fall let alone freeze to death and drown.

She didn't know where this night fury was taking them and what would happen to her when she landed. She could only hope Blacky would convince this dragon not to kill her. It clearly wanted to.

* * *

Toothless was annoyed this viking was still latching onto the hatchling. He'd thought she'd have lost her grip and fallen to her death by _now_.

What bothered him even more though was his tail. It hurt a lot from the fight with the witch. The more he flew, the worse the pain got. He needed to rest it, let it heal. But getting the hatchling to the nest took over his common sense.

_**"Don't worry about your tail, it'll be fine."**_ screamed the voice in his head.  
Everytime he thought of landing, the voice bore into his head like an annoying itch of pain.

Turning the tail fin to adjust to the wind currents felt even worse than the flying, it felt like the wound only grew bigger. It felt like the fin was being torn from the tail. He daren't look incase that were true.

_**"It's not tearing, you're fine. Return to the nest."**_

He just had to get to the nest. The tearing was his imagination. But no matter how much the voice nagged at him to keep going, the pain kept getting worse.

All of a sudden, he blacked out. It was only for a second, but to his horror, he'd dropped the hatchling. He swerved into a dive, ignoring the pain it brought to his tail fin. The girl was screaming along with the young dusk-striker. Somehow she was still holding on and climbed onto his back, arms latching round his neck.  
He managed to reach them just in time before they hit the water. Ignoring the feel of the viking girl against his stomach he tried to regain altitude.

A sharp pain in his tail made in shriek in pain. He suddenly couldn't control it as well. A brief look behind him showed it was hanging off! Only the back half of his left tailfin was still attached.

And then, at the worst possible moment, a gust of wind sent him spiraling in the air!  
He only just managed to level himself before a rock suddenly appeared in front of him. His desperate turns only aggravated his injury more. He swore he could feel it tearing even further.

He spotted an island in the near distance and headed straight to it.  
As soon as he was over land, he finally lost complete control of his tail fin and crashed _hard_ into the rocky sands.

* * *

After the initial shock of the crash landing eased its way out of his system, Hiccup wriggled his way out from the older night furies grip. What had happened? The night fury had somehow lost control of its flight!

He saw Ruffnut quickly follow after him. She'd been sandwiched in-between them after she'd clambered onto his back from the first fall.  
They both moved away from the older dragon.

It wasn't moving! Was it just unconscious? Or maybe even...d-dead?

He had to check, so he mustered up his courage and edged towards the fallen form - somehow limping on both hind legs. The left because of his still healing injury and the right from the strain of supporting Ruffnut's weight.

The night fury had ended up hitting his head on a boulder, but from the rise and fall of his chest it was just unconsciousness. He decided to look for any other injuries. He saw some scratches and cuts here and there but when he got to his tail he gasped in shock. One of the back tail fins was _missing_! The rough jagged cut along the tail insinuated it had torn off? Was it the crash or perhaps it had happened before?! He remembered the sudden loss of control before the crash, was that when it had happened?

He went back over to Ruffnut who was shaking._ "Are you okay?" _He warbled.

She had her hands wrapped around herself and looked pale. But then she looked down and saw him looking at her. She suddenly broke into tears and pulled him to her trembling frame. The shock of being carried off and crash landing had clearly gotten to her. He could only warble comforting words to her as she got it out of her system.

* * *

It was sunset by the time she'd ended up passing out against him. Her soft snores reverting through his scales.

For the first time since landing, he had a proper look at where they were.  
They had crashed on a shingle beach with rocks and boulders present. Not the best place for a crash landing, he thought to himself.  
Attached to that appeared to be a forest of orange, covered in fog. The ground around him -but more so further in - was lightly covered in snow. Patches of grass and shrubbery poked out from Its white blanket. There appeared to be some mountains and many rock pillars with the orange trees on top in the distance, making him question how large this island actually was.

He could hear a symphony of birds as the day was coming to a close. He couldn't recognise any of the sounds the birds were making. He wondered what other creatures he'd never heard of called this place home. A part of him was excited at the prospect of adventure and new knowledge. The other worried about the unknown dangers it may hold.

* * *

His head was killing him. Past the pounding and stabbing sensations of pain, It felt clouded and unfocused, but at the same time strangely clear. The itching probing in his head he'd grown used to _was gone_. He felt like he could think for himself for the first time in years!

He registered he must have hit his head in the crash, but could that really have broken the queens hold over him? He couldn't be certain. He carefully opened his eyes, ignoring the pain it caused his head to do so.

It was dark out. Had he been out for hours or days?  
He saw the hatchling several metres away from him, tucked into a ball sleeping. He couldn't see the viking girl. But he could smell her.

He tried to get up only to lay down again as dizziness assaulted him and a wave of nausea hit him. He must have hit his head harder than he first thought.  
It wouldn't do him any good to try getting up for now. The hatchling appeared safe and he couldn't smell or hear any danger. His tired mind begged for sleep to heal the concussion and he let it have its way as blackness overcame him again, forgetting the presence of the girl.

* * *

The next time consciousness started to creep up on him, he could feel a pleasant coolness on his head. The pain in his head had reduced to a dull ache, as well as his tail. Something was moving along his head. It felt strange and unfamiliar. It was smooth but a bit wet. It was almost flat with four? No five appendages attached. And there were two of them. They seemed to be wrapping something wet around his head. The grogginess of sleep inched it's way out of his mind. He gave a quick sniff and smelled..._Viking!?_

His eyes snapped open only to see the viking girl hovering over him. A look of shock on her features - caused from his awakening. He leapt to his feet to defend himself only to stumble and have his vision blur. The girl fell back in fright.

He shook his head a bit to clear it and let out a growl of warning. She just stayed splayed out on the ground staring up at him and trembling. He let out a high-pitched roar which caused her to start crawling backwards away from him.  
He went for an attack when all of a sudden, the hatchling jumped in between them.

_"Don't hurt her!"_ Hiccup yelled.

_"Why not? She's a viking. She was going to kill me!"_ Protested toothless.

Toothless continued to try to get past the hatchling to the girl only for Hiccup to block his path and lunge a few times.

_"I said stay back!"_

_"Get out of my way!"  
_

* * *

To Ruffnut, the violent display scared her. Blacky was protecting her from the larger night fury but she feared for his safety. If they started bringing out the teeth and claws, there was no way he could win. All she could hear were shrieks and growls as they argued over what she could only guess was her life.  
She'd only been trying to help it since it was badly injured. She'd made friends with Blacky, why not another dragon? She thought if she showed it she only wanted to help and meant no harm it wouldn't try to kill her. But it clearly wasn't that simple.

* * *

Toothless was tired of this game and lunged for the hatchling. He tossed him to the ground and grabbed the back of his neck in his jaws. Hiccup suddenly froze. He couldn't move! It was like he was a kitten being carried by the scruff.

Toothless tossed Hiccup behind him and dashed toward Ruff. He was a mere metre away before he gave a shriek of pain. Hiccup had bitten into his injured tail!  
Given the chance, Ruff made a run for it. She wanted to get as far away from the adult night fury as possible.

Toothless swung around and flung Hiccup off of him.

_"What do you think you're doing!"_ Yelled Toothless

_"I told you to leave her alone!"_ Hiccup cried back. "_She wasn't going to kill you, she was healing you."_

_"Healing me? Why would a viking heal a dragon?"_

_"She's not like the others. She doesn't want to kill dragons anymore. I'm the proof. She didn't kill me, she took care of me. I'd be dead if it weren't for her." _He pleaded.

Toothless stared in stunned silence at Hiccups out burst.

_"I'm not saying you have to become friends with her straight away. It takes time to build trust. But please. Don't hurt her. I'll take responsibility if she tries anything. Please trust me."_

Toothless stared a little while longer before giving a sigh.

_"Fine!"_

Hiccup's face lit up.

_"But you have to keep your word on taking responsibility. If she even tries to put a scratch on one of us, you will be the one to take her life!"_

Hiccup hesitantly agreed to the deal, hoping it would never come to that.

_"I don't want her touching me again though. I don't trust vikings. i don't want her touching you either."_

_"I like her touching me though,"_ replied Hiccup causing an appalled expression from Toothless_. "It feels nice, especially when she scratches me under the chin."_

_"What are you? A pet?"_

_"No! of course not. We're friends. Although she treats me more like her child. She's very motherly." _Considered Hiccup as he thought about their relationship.

_"I've never heard of a human acting motherly to a dragon before! Is she a bit coocoo in the head or something?" _Laughed toothless.

_"Well she is sometimes a bit nu-... i mean no of course not. Sure she enjoys reckless stunts here and there but she's otherwise sane. I think. She's just different to other vikings now. She's changed." _

_"What ever you say hatchling."_

_"I have a name you know."_

_"Oh? and whats that?"_

_"Hiccup."_

Toothless stared for a second before rolling over in laughter. _"Hiccup? What kind of name is that!?"_

_"It's not like i chose it. Whats your name anyway?" _Asked Hiccup, annoyed with the mocking. Viking names were almost always weird. Something about scaring off trolls or something.

_"I don't have one anymore,"_ He replied still chuckling a bit.

_"Oh? Why not?"_

_"It's a long story, I'll tell you some other time." _He said before going into another giggling fit_. "Hiccup hahaha. "_

Hiccup held the annoyed expression while watching the older night fury role on the ground. Then he noticed something strange. The night fury's teeth were missing. They were there not long ago. Maybe it was a special ability of night furies to retract them or something. But just then an idea popped into his head.

_"Well since you don't have one I'll give you one. Since you enjoy laughing over my name I'll give you one even more silly. "_

Toothless stopped his laughing for a moment to hear what the Hiccup had come up with. Hoping it wasn't as silly as he implied. Maybe he shouldn't have mocked him.

_"Toothless."_ Hiccup grinned.

_"What!?" Why toothless. That's humiliating."_

_"I know, but i happened to notice your teeth retract while you were laughing at me. I think it's quite fitting."_

_"That's not fair. You can do that too."_

_"Doesn't matter, I've made up my mind, __Toothless.__" He mocked. "That's what I'm calling you from now on."_

_"Not if I have anything to say about it __Hiccup__." _And with that he ran towards him ready to hold him down until he took back the name. Hiccup ran off laughing.

* * *

Ruffnut looked at the two interact from behind a boulder. They had stopped fighting for a while to exchange growls, clicks and grunts. A conversation perhaps? Then the larger one had started laughing making Blacky look annoyed like the older one was making fun of him or something. Blacky must have said something offensive back afterwards since they were now chasing each other, laughing and play fighting.

She was relieved the older one wasn't trying to kill her anymore and even more so that they seemed to have become friends. Maybe the older night fury would be a bit more complacent about befriending her now?

She hesitantly stepped away from the rock and slowly walked towards them, ready to bolt if things turned ugly.

* * *

**AN- so now toothless' name is official. haha. **

**i had fun writing their conversation. Ruffnut's befriending of Toothless will be next chapter.  
Also, the first part in the village pretty much wrote itself. i hope the idea of then suddenly trying to tame dragons is okay. i look forward to writing it.**

**also just a little note i found out myself is i think i'm a bit dislexic. i keep getting my p's and b's mixed up making it a pain to correct. i also keep writing 'self' as 'slef' . what's up with that haha.  
**

**And finaly, did anyone guess where they landed? **

**reviews**

**guest (concrit) - i'd like to thankyou for your detailed critque on how i can improve the first chapter. it makes alot of sense and i plan to take your advice into action when i find the time. again thankyou very much.**

**a random person - glad you are enjoying it. i do indeed plan for him to write on the ground to explain to ruffnut. i think there was a glimps of that in chapter 2? i think. but he was shaking too badly and couldn't control his paws enough to do it. i'm not sure about getting toothless' sister and Hiccup together. It's more likely to be Ruffcup, but it was an interesting idea i took into consideration.  
**

**Lizzy - Glad you are enjoying it. :D**

**And of course a thankyou to everyone else who reviewed and to the new followers and thx for the faves. i love you guys XD**

**next chap in 1-3 days.  
**


	9. Trust

**AN - welcome to chapter 9. It was tough figuring out how i was gonna get the friendship between Toothless and Ruff started. But i think it went well. You can play 'forbidden friendship' ost from the movie near the last part. i think it makes it more _immer_sive? Is that the word for it?**

**Also well done Snowflake, It is indeed Itchy-Armpit they are on. i know it's _not_ really in-between Berk and the dragon nest but it looked like such an interesting island i just had to use it. And since not much is known about it, i can add all sorts of things to it.**

**Another thing is i updated the first chapter a couple days back if anyone would like to re-read it. i hope it's satifactory.**

**Anyway i hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

* * *

Hiccup noticed Ruffnut approaching and bounded over to her, leaving Toothless to his own company.

"Hey Blacky. Have you calmed him down?" She asked.

He nodded and motioned for her to follow him over to the bigger dragon.  
Toothless was ignoring them. He had his back turned, peeking glances a few time to see if they knew he was ignoring them.

_"Oh, great now you're pouting? Who's the eldest here?"_ Mocked Hiccup

_"I'm not pouting." _Toothless shot back.

_"Then what would you call what you're doing?"_

_"I'm ignoring you. I know what you're trying to do! I'm not making peace with a viking. you can't make me. I'm still not happy with you being so close to her."_

Hiccup ran over to toothless and stood in front of him.

_"Well I'm gonna be as close to her as I want and there's nothing you can do about it."_ He said cheekly.

_"Oh really?"_ Toothless smirked before lunging forward and grabbing Hiccups scruff.

_"H-Hey let me go," _Hiccup whined.

Toothless grabbed Hiccup in his paws and let go of his scruff.

_"No, besides it's feeding time for you and I still have some fish from yesterday morning to give you. A hatchling needs it's food to grow big and strong __so you better eat all of it. A__ viking wouldn't be able to look after you like a dragon can."_ He stated as he then began to make regurgitating sounds.

_"Oh no! you're not gonna..."_  
Toothless threw up some slimy half chewed fish pieces on the shingled beech.

_"...ewww"_

_"Well eat up."_

_"I'm not eating that." _

_"You'd better eat it or I'll stuff it down your throat if I have too. "_ Toothless threatened.

_"You sound like my dad."_

_"Eat it!"_

Hiccup stared at the disgusting mess of partly digested fish pieces soaking into the ground.  
He really didn't want to be force-fed by a dragon so he hesitantly leaned down and picked up a bit of fish in his teeth. He prepared for the horrible taste as it went into his mouth. But...It actually tasted good. How could something so revolting taste that nice. He gobbled down the rest and thanked Toothless for the meal.

_"It's as if you haven't had regurgitated fish before. Strange. It's pretty much what all hatchlings eat at first since their stomachs can't handle it without the bacteria present in their parents stomachs."_

_"O-of course I've had it before," He lied. " It was just strange accepting it from a dragon I barely know."_

* * *

Ruffnut was both amused and disgusted at the display of feeding she just witnessed. Blacky had seemed rather reluctant at first, a bit like when she'd first fed him. It was like he was discovering what was edible and what he enjoyed to eat for the first time. But that was what was strange, he should have learnt that at an earlier age when his parents fed him. The older night fury also had what appeared to be a confused expression on his face too at Blacky's hesitance to eat what he'd given him.

Could he have forgotten something like that she wondered. But then was the issue with his parents. He'd said they had died, but he also didn't know how to fly. That would mean they had to have died on Berk, but no one had ever seen a night fury before him alive _or dead_.  
For him to not be familiar with feeding it would have meant they had died recently before she found him. But the chief had scoured the island in search of Blacky and hadn't come across any night fury bodies. It just didn't add up. It was like he'd appeared from thin air.

She was interrupted from her thoughts when her stomach rumbled. She was _starving_.  
She realised she hadn't eaten since before she'd escaped the village to see Blacky. She'd given him all the fish she'd taken since he clearly needed it more than her since he hadn't eaten in a week. So it had been a few days since her last meal now. She looked towards the ocean. Perhaps she could catch some fish? Maybe some crabs hiding under the rocks? But how was she going to catch them?

She walked over to the water to see if any fish were lurking in the shallows, _they were._  
Maybe she could spear them she thought to herself. With that in mind, she started looking through the shingle for any sturdy and sharp stones she could use. She briefly glanced over to the two night furies who were napping in each others embrace. It was really cute.

Once she'd found one suitable, she began filing it into a better blade against a nearby boulder. It was slow going and it took a lot of work. She'd prefer to try melting down some iron over this primitive method. But it was all she had to work with. When she was happy with the shape and sharpness she set into the forest to find a stick. She wasn't gonna go too far in though. Not on her own anyway. She hoped to explore it later on and see what mystery's and secrets this island held.

* * *

Toothless noticed the girl leave. He hoped she'd get herself killed in the wilderness. Then he wouldn't have to deal with her trying to steal Hiccup away from him. dusk-strikers should stick together, not hang around other _dragons_ let alone vikings.  
Hiccup began to stir under his embrace. Toothless gave him a sniff.

_"You need a bath."_ He stated bluntly.

_"Huh!? I don't smell that bad do I?"_

_"You reek of the girl for starters. But besides her when was the last time you had one?"_

Hiccup hadn't a single bath since his transformation - unless you count falling into a pond.

_"At least over a week ago I think."_

_"A week! I'm giving you a bath right now. I expect you to clean yourself more often in the future."_ He scorned.

_"No wait! I can do it myse-...eww what are you doing." _He cried as Toothless began licking him.

_"I'm giving you a bath of course,"_ He answered like it was the dumbest question he'd ever heard.

_"I'd rather bathe in the water."_

_"The water? The water has all kinds of bacteria in it. Saliva is much better than water. Night fury saliva also has healing properties so it will help with that wound of yours." _He explained as he continued his licking.

He had to hold Hiccup down quite a bit since he wouldn't stop squirming.  
Then Toothless started to lick in places far to personal for Hiccup.

_"W-wait don't lick there. s-stoooop."_ He whined.

He was thoroughly embarrassed by the end of it. He wasn't letting toothless _ever_ do that again! And he wouldn't be doing it to himself either. Licking certain places on the body was just _wrong_. He wasn't an animal. He may be a dragon on the outside but he was a human on the inside. He'd bathe in water from now on like he always had whether toothless liked it or not.

Eventually after some pouting and toothless promising he wouldn't lick him anymore, they snuggled back to sleep.

* * *

As Ruffnut wandered through the wilderness, her first thoughts were that the trees were strange. They had very long protruding roots that came down like tubes and some even made narrow walls. Some had long hanging branches. When looking up at the canopy she could see a mosaic of orange shades. It was beautiful.

She decided to climb one to get a good hanging branch for her spear handle. It had to be straight and sturdy!  
She climbed higher and higher, not worrying about the height. She'd climbed plenty of tall trees back on Berk. She pulled herself onto a branch and reached for the best looking branch near to her. It was sturdy all right, she couldn't snap it off. She hoped she wouldn't damage it after all her hard work but her only choice to getting the branch would be to use the spear head. She spent a while sawing at it. Starting with the lower part and then the top. The branch hung quite a distance below her and she didn't want to deal with the weight of it by only cutting it once.

She sighed hard. She'd finally cut it off but her spearhead what damaged. She'd need to make a new one. At the thought of waiting longer for her possible food, her stomach rumbled.

It was time to head back but she didn't feel like taking the boring safe route down. No, she was going to have some fun on these long hanging branches. She secured the stick by placing under the clothing on her back - having it stick out either end. Then she grabbed onto a branch and jumped.

"Woooooooohoooooooooo" She yelled as she slid and swung down the branch - some uneven branches scraping against her fingers. When she reached the end she leapt the rest of the distance to the ground.

"Well that was fun," She exclaimed before remembering the boring task ahead of her. When she got back to the beach, the night furies were _still_ sleeping. She got to work on the new spear head straight away. She really needed to eat something. All this exertion was making her dizzy.

When she was done, it was already sunset. She still had enough light if she started fishing now. But she still need some vine to tie the head and the stick together. She hadn't noticed any on her earlier trek so she'd have to go in further to find some. But it was coming to the end of the day. She'd have to wait till tomorrow.

She slumped down to the ground. Her hair cascading over her. Suddenly something clicked. Her hair! She could use it instead of vines. She used the spear head to cut off enough strands to use as binding.

Her spear was finally done. Now she just had to get some fish!  
She crept over to the water trying not to scare the fish away. She stood still and waited for one to come close enough. She struck! And caught one - she was lucky the spear was her main weapon of choice as a viking. She started whooping in joy, scaring away the other fish and waking the night furies.

She didn't care for catching anymore tonight. She'd worked hard to get this one fish for dinner and she was gonna enjoy every bit of it. well, apart from the guts and the bones.

She soon realised however that she didn't have a fire to cook it. The older night fury wouldn't help her but maybe Blacky could?

"Blacky come here," She called.

_"Blacky? Is that what she calls you?"_ Asked Toothless.

_"Yeah, but it's better than Hiccup or Toothless right?" _He joked.

_"Che, whatever."_ With that he went back to napping for a while longer. Dusk-strikers were more active in the night, not the day.

Hiccup ran up to her wondering what she wanted.

"Can you light a fire for me? I don't really want to eat this raw." She asked.

But Hiccup hadn't quite figured that part out yet. Sure he'd hit his father that one time, but he wasn't sure how he'd done it. so he shook his head.

She let out a sigh, "Don't worry then I'll just have to have it raw after all. You can have the guts and the head though, I'm not eating that.

Hiccup felt disgusted at the thought of eating those parts as well, but perhaps they would taste nice like all the other fishy things he'd eaten as a dragon. So he led down beside her and she cut off the parts for him. They were indeed delicious.

Ruffnut didn't seem to dislike her meal either. Maybe raw fish _was_ edible for humans. No one had really tried it out at the village. Meat just seemed better cooked.

* * *

-  
When morning came around, Ruffnut was busy catching fish. She wasn't the only one. The older night fury and Blacky were trying to catch them further along the shore. It was rather funny seeing how frustrated the older one became as he failed time and time again. Perhaps he wasn't used to hunting in the shallows like that. He'd probably caught fish and other animals through flight before, but now because of his missing fin he couldn't do that anymore. She felt like offering him some fish if he still couldn't catch any by the afternoon.

Which is where she found herself now. The night fury was curled in a ball 'pouting' as she like to put it. She was currently sharing her catch with Blacky since he also hadn't caught anything. Blacky had tried taking some fish over to him, but he'd refused it. Was it because she caught them? She was sure his pride would break eventually. He had to eat at some point. So she shifted her attention on Blacky.

"Hey Blacky."

He looked up at her.

"I was wondering about a few things yesterday. The way you act and in fact your actual existence doesn't make too much sence to me. What I mean is, When I first fed you and The other night fury fed you, it seemed like a new experience to you. But wouldn't your parents have taught you about what you could eat and wouldn't they have regurgitated food for you too? Why did it seem so new to you?"

He was taken back a bit. She'd actually noticed his mistakes. She was figuring him out.

"And with your parents. you can't fly so they had to have been on Berk when they died right? But when the chief searched thee island for you, there were no reports of dead night furies. There wasn't anything before I discovered you either since you were the first time anyone has laid eyes on one. It's like you appeared out of thin air or something. "

_"Yeah, pretty much what happened."_ He replied, knowing she couldn't understand him.

"The only thing I can think of to make sense of it is that your parents abandoned you and you lost your memory or something. Is that what happened? Be truthful with me."

Hiccup didn't know what to think. Ruff had seen through his lies and the flaws to his very existence. Was she always this smart? Even the night fury hadn't questioned him about the inconsistencies in his story yet.

But still, he didn't want to keep lying to her. They were far away from Berk now and she's changed from the bully he remembered her as. Maybe she'd actually treat him better now if he told her the truth. It would be better to tell her now himself instead of that witch who might one day show up again and tell his secret for all to hear. What would she think of him then? She'd probably hate him for deceiving her, lying to her and betraying her trust. He'd grown to care for her too and he couldn't stand for it to come to that. So he made up his mind. He was going to tell her the truth. but he needed to make sure she didn't let Toothless know just yet. He wanted him to make friends with Ruffnut before he dropped the bomb on him too.

"Blacky answer me," She begged. She wanted an answer.

Hiccup shook his head.

"Then what is it? I can't make sense of it i-" She was interrupted by Hiccup pulling on her skirt.

"You want me to follow you?"

He nodded.  
So he led her too a more secluded place Toothless couldn't see or hear them. The big pussy cat was fast asleep anyway. But it never hurt to be cautious.

"Why did you drag me all the way over here?" She asked.

They were standing on the edge of a grassy area. Snow slightly covered it.  
Hiccup began sweeping away the snow and digging up the ground.

"What are you doing!?"

But he ignored her and continued his work. Once the soil was free of plants and snow, he evened it out with his tail.

Then he began to write.

Ruffnut couldn't believe what she was seeing. He was writing norse in the dirt. She didn't know dragons could write. But soon it became clear that not all dragons could, if they could at all. This one was the exception as she read out what he had written.

_'I am Hiccup.' _It read.

"H-Hiccup? What do you mean you're Hiccup?"

He swept out the previous words and wrote again.

_'I didn't die. I got turned into a dragon. '_

"Huh!? How is that even possible? And are you really Hiccup. Stoic the vast's son from my village of Berk?"

_'Yes'_ he wrote._ 'A witch cursed me. When I changed, only my clothes were left behind.'_

"That would explain why there wasn't a body. But a witch? witchcraft is a myth."

Hiccup gave a small chuckle._ 'I said the same thing before she blasted me.'_

"Look at you though, it's like I'm seeing you for the first time again now that I know it's you in there. Why didn't you tell me before?"

_'I was scared. You were never kind to me in the village. But as a dragon, you cared about me. I'd never felt so loved. I was afraid that if I told you you'd sick the village on me for your own amusement.'_

Ruffnut was shocked. Is that what he thought of her all this time. She'd only been messing around with him all these years, she didn't realise how much torment it had actually brought him.

"I'm sorry I teased you all those years. It was just some fun on our end. I didn't think about how much it hurt you. But still, I'd never have stooped so low as to get you killed Hiccup." She said back with earnest.

Tears started to prickle his eyes but he still tried his best to write.

_'You don't hate me for lying to you till now?'_

"No of course I don't," she said bringing him into a hug. "You must have been so scared. Getting turned into a dragon, the villages worst enemy. And you got that injury from your dad. Your heart must have hurt far more than the wound. "

Hiccup began giving out small whines and warbles as he cried into her shoulder. A weight felt lifted from finally telling someone what had happened to him.

Eventually he stopped crying and began to cheer up. Ruffnut knew his secret. What was gonna happen now?  
Ruff grew an excited grin on her face.

"How awesome it would be to be a dragon though."

Hiccup looked at her in a stunned expression. What was _awesome_ about being a creature that was hunted by blood thirsty vikings. He wanted to change back as soon as possible - If it _was_ possible.

"Think about it, you can fly _and_ breathe fire. You could fly up way high in the sky and drop from huge distances without the fear of dying. You can move from island to island faster than a boat and then the fire. Oh the fire. Imagine all the destruction you could cause.  
Being a dragon would be awesome."

She did have a point he thought. They could make fire but _flight _was something they could only dream of. He felt the sudden urge to want to fly and tried flapping his wings. But it was yet again hopeless. He only seemed to hover off the ground. Wait! Maybe Toothless could teach him. He'd go ask him right away...oh. But first he had to make sure Ruff kept her knowledge a secret.

_'Keep calling me Blacky. I don't want Toothless to find out my secret just yet.'_

"Toothless? That's his name.," She let out a giggle. "Who came up with a name like that."

Hiccup held his head high a clear smirk on his face.

"You?"

He nodded.

"How did that happen?"

_'He was mocking my name so I started calling him that.' He wrote._

"So that's what you guys were talking about the other day." she said, finally understanding their reactions.  
"Don't worry, I won't let him know I know about you." She promised.

* * *

Hours later, Ruff and hiccup were back at the dirt patch. It was now much larger as the two had found some entertainment in drawing on it.

Hiccup had asked Toothless about flying lessons but had been turned down. The reason being that he couldn't fly himself anymore so wasn't able to help him. He'd have been annoyed if it wasn't for the depressed look Toothless held about speaking of his inability to fly.

He wished he could help him, but what could he do? Toothless had lost a fin, and even if he could make some kind of prostetic he couldn't figure out how he'd get it to move correctly. Maybe something to help pull it open like rope? But he doubted toothless could hold it by himself as he flew. Far too dangerous. So what if someone did it for him? He couldn't do it mid-air - if he learnt to fly- since they may separate too much. Then something clicked in his mind.

A rider! If he could somehow convince toothless to let someone on his back he'd be able to help him fly again. The only person around though was Ruffnut. He needed to get toothless to trust her before he could even get to making it. He wondered if he could find all the materials he needed on this island.

* * *

What were they doing over there? Toothless wondered to himself. They'd been messing around in what appeared to be a dirt patch for _hours_. What was so fun about dirt?

Blocking out the two of them and the hunger pains in his stomach for a moment, he thought about his dire situation. He was grounded. He's accepted he'd lost his tailfin now and there wasn't anything he could do about it. It wouldn't just _grow back_.

Was he going to spend the rest of his life trapped on this island? He could only thank the dragon gods it was a rather large.  
The only good thing that had come out of going to Berk was that he found a fellow dusk-striker. If it stayed with him, they could both escape the inevitable fate of dying of loneliness. But the fact it favored the viking girl who had tagged along drove him crazy.

He pitied how inexperienced it was. It clearly didn't understand the dangers of Vikings. He'd watched countless of his kin from the queen's nest perish to the hands of vikings. The cruel ways in which they would slaughter them. Sometimes they even captured them to be used as practice for their younglings. It was so horrific to see the inexperienced viking children butcher the poor dragons to death. It made the slaughtering during the raids seem merciful.

He heard their laughter again. What were they doing. The curiosity was driving him mad. Maybe a peek wouldn't hurt, just to see how dirt was keeping them so entertained.

He crept over so they wouldn't notice him. Years of hunting practice made him a silent and very deadly killer. He could kill the viking girl before the hatchling even noticed. But he'd given his word he wouldn't touch her and he never went back on his word.

With their backs turned to him he gazed over at them to see what they were doing. The viking girl held a small stick in one hand and was using it to make lines in the dirt. They seemed to come together to create a familiar shape though. It was the young dusk-striker! How had she done that?

He looked to what hiccup was doing and noticed he was using his claws to make strange markings in the dirt. She was talking to him in that strange human language of hers. He'd learnt some of it during his time in the Archipelago, but he didn't see the point in listening to her current gibberish. There were too many words he didn't know in there. Like what did 'fin' and 'prosthetic' mean?  
And why did she bother talking to Hiccup? She _clearly_ didn't understand dragon so it was just a one-sided conversation.

He decided to make himself known by blowing some air onto the viking girls head. He loved how she jumped. What surprised him though is she didn't move away. Why wasn't she afraid of him? It made him look silly for being afraid of her.

Was she trying to mock him? Did she think she was better than him. Showing off how close she can get to the hatchling. Showing off her fishing skills. He said he wouldn't be violent to her so he decided to show her he could be better at something too. He walked off and grabbed a big stick. Much more impressive than a puny one like hers.

He brought it over to the dirt area and began to drag it along the floor. making lots of squiggly patterns. He had tried to draw hiccup too to show he could do a much better job of it. He was rather pleased with himself. it looked amazing he thought.  
Although in reality it was just a bunch of squiggly lines that didn't look like anything in particular.

The viking girl got up to see his picture. He wanted her too. She was clearly impressed by it, he'd shown her who th-... She stepped on it!  
He let out a growl to tell her to get off.

She lifted her foot and he went back into a good mood. Only for her to do it again.  
He growled and purred a few times of her stepping on and off it before she finally seemed to get the message and gave a smile.

She started stepping this way and that in a sort of dance as she tried to look at every inch of it. To see his masterpiece in detail he convinced himself.

Mesmerized by the dance he didn't even see her come within less than a metre from him. But instead of feeling threatened by her, He let her stay there. From what he remembered, vikings didn't admire works of art like she had just done. Maybe she was different. They stared at each other in stunned silence for a moment. A strangely pleasant feel in the air.

She reached out to touch him but he growled. He didn't want to be touched. She backed her hand away.  
She looked nervous. Of course she would be nervous in my presence, he thought to himself. I'm a magnificent deadly creature who doesn't need armor and steel weapons to kill and protect myself.

But to his surprise, she hesitantly looked away and held out her hand. He could just bite it off if he wanted to and she knew that.  
This viking girl was putting her trust in him. Putting her _life_ in his paws.

Maybe hiccup was right, maybe she _was_ different, maybe he could trust her back. Put his life in her hands as well.

Without anymore thought, he felt the magical moment coming to a close as he rest his snout into her out stretched hand.

She looked back at him in shock and delight. A strange _wordless_ connection had just formed between them. A connection of friendship, loyalty and trust.

* * *

**AN- So was that okay? just a heads up, toothless won't just suddenly switch to putty in her hands or anything. The friendship has just started and needs time to grow - along with the trust.**

**The tougue bath scene was completly innocent for any of you dirty minded people out there haha.**

**Now onto some reviews.**

**a random person - You'll have to wait and see. It's not gonna go smoothly though as you can guess. haha.**

**zomie230 - i know right. i feel that way about many fanfics out there that i love too. i feel honored you feel that way about mine. thankyou. :)**

**fireflame159 - nah it's not gonna be permanent, ruffcup will probably happen in this fic so he needs to be human for that ;)**

**guest** -_"So... Is Hiccup going to turn back in to a human NAKED that is so funny?!"_  
**Well unless clothes can magicaly appear out of thin air then yes, yes he will be naked :P**

**Skysorrow - love the name btw. Of course i'm gonna keep continuing. i need a few days to write and proofread a chapter. Also, it's not really something you ask when it's only been a few days since the last update haha. I only ask that to an author if it's been months or years.**

**Thanks to everyone else who reviewed. i got alot this time and it made me really happy. :D **

**next chapter within the next 3 days.**


	10. Training and adventure

**AN- welcome to chapter 10. I made this one extra long for a guest whose dog is passing away tomorrow. I'm sorry for your loss. I know how heart breaking it is to lose a family member. I have lost plenty in my life and even worse is most died young. Just remember you gave her a good life and she'll always be with you in spirit. I give my condolences to you.**

**I hope that you and everyone else enjoy this chapter.**

_"Text"_** - dragons speaking**

* * *

Stoic gave a sigh as he sat at a table in the great hall - drinking some mead. Gobber came over and sat beside him.

"'ow you 'olding up Stoic?"

"Not good Gobber. First I lose my son then another teen is taken off. It happened right in front of me and I couldn't stop it because of a mere injury. What kind of chief am I if I can't protect my people? I couldn't even protect my family."

"Don' be so 'ard on yourself Stoic. No one knew the Thorston girl would jus' jump onto the nigh' fury like tha' and tha' was no mere injury from wha' I 'eard, I' tore the jugular. You're lucky to be alive."

Stoic still looked downcast.

"And you shouldn' blame yourself for 'iccup either. He was always getting 'imself into trouble. I' was a miracle 'e survived until now."

"The only reason he got himself into trouble all the time and got in the habit of wandering into the forest was because of me. I've always been disappointed in him. I didn't mean to, I wanted him to grow up to be a strong Viking but he always failed my expectations. He constantly tried to impress me only to make it worse. The village found him to be a nuisance and caused me great shame. " He stated with remorse.

"If he hadn't found the need to escape their glares and disdain, he wouldn't have been in that forest with the night fury. He'd still be alive - mumbling in is sarcastic humour and testing out another invention deemed to fail." Stoic sighed as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"I miss him Gobber. I always hated his remarks and un-viking habits. But now, I wish to see and hear them more than ever. "

"We all feel tha' way Stoic. It's strange 'ow you only miss something when it's gone. Even the things you can't stand and wished were gone and would jus' stop everyday." Gobber said, trying to cheer his friend up. "We've all los' someone. It's an occupational 'azard for us Vikings. But we grieve, we move on, and we forgive ourselves."

"How can I forgive myself Gobber? Ever since he was born I stopped being a father to him. I just could never accept that fish bone as my son, my heir. Valka though, she loved Hiccup despite his small and weak body. She truly believed he'd become a strong man one day. I envied her for that. If she were still around, I'm sure that could have come to fruition. But instead, I didn't believe in him and I tried to turn him into something he's not. All I did was get him killed. Valka wouldn't forgive me for that, so I can't forgive myself for that. "

They both stayed in silence for a while, depression thick in the air as they drunk their mead.

The chief let out a sigh, "I'm heading out for the nest tomorrow."

"Tha' soon? Don' you think you should give yourself some more time to gri-"

"No! I can't rest until that night fury is dead. There's always the chance the Thorston girl is still alive as well. Who's to say she didn't fall off and wash up on an island? I don't want to lose more of my people Gobber. I need to take down that nest!"

Gobber sighed, "All righ', I'll pack my undies then."

"No, you stay here. I need you to train some new recruits."

"The teens? You think they're ready?"

"We've lost two already and we can't lose any more. They need to learn to defend themselves before it's too late. I'll be back before the final exam."

"O-okay sure thing." Gobber replied. He decided not to tell him of the taming the teens were planning to try out. It would most likely fail anyway and they'd get straight onto the real training. No need to bother Stoic with any more worries.

With that, the chief left the hall to go to bed. He expected to have another night of restless sleep in the empty and silent house, without the sound of his sons' snores.

* * *

The remaining villagers watched as the fleet sailed away, headed for the nest.

Tuff watched with a solemn expression, hoping they'd find his sister along the way. He shook off the sadness before heading for the training ring. He grew excited at the prospect of taming a dragon. He'd brought some fish, bits of meat and bread along. He knew a good way to make a friend was to offer them free food so maybe it would work on a dragon. He just didn't know what to feed it.

"How's it hanging guys?" He yelled over to the others all ready in the ring.

"Nervous!" Yelped Fishlegs. "I still don't how I became involved in this."

"Jeez Fishlegs it'll be fine. It's only a terrible terror. It couldn't kill you if it tried. They're only dangerous in groups. You're the walking encyclopedia, you should know that." Astrid stated.

"They can still really hurt though," He whined.

"Please! If anyone's getting hurt it's the dragon. If it even tried to bite me I'm putting a fist in its face to show it whose boss." Boasted Snotlout.

"Just remember we're taming the dragon, not trying to kill it Snotlout." Replied Astrid.

"What you got in the basket Tuff?" Asked Fishlegs.

"Some food."

"Your not gonna have a picnic with a dragon running around are you?" Laughed Snotlout.

"No! It's for the dragon. Thought it might like me more if I gave it some food."

"Ooh, that's smart." Said Fishlegs, "Could I have some?"

"Sure, just don't go and eat it. I know you get hungry when you're nervous."

"I do not!" Cried Fishlegs.

The other two laughed.

"You totally do Fishlegs, " Said Snotlout.

They heard the gate close as Gobber made his way in.

"Alrigh', let's ge' this over with shall we. I'll give you the whole day. You can give up at any time 'owever."

"Alright, a whole day!" Yelled Tuff excitedly, thinking that Gobber was making this too easy.

"I'll be standing over 'ere to make sure no one gets too 'urt. It's only a terror so it won' kill you unless it gets your throa' so make sure to guard it with your hands. Also mind the fingers as you may lose a few if you don' watch I'."

Fishlegs grew more nervous.

"If anyone needs a break come over to me so I can guard you be'er. Is tha' all clear."

They all nodded in confirmation.

"Good." And with that he opened the door to the little dragons cage.

None of the teens were armed as to take Ruff's advice to heart. Would it really not attack them? Is what they all wondered.

"Heh, look at it, it's the size of my-" Before Tuff could finish it leapt up and started mauling on his nose.

The dragon clearly hadn't liked the insult and the others scattered away from it.

"Oh I'm hurt, I am very much hurt." He yelled.

"Looks like a frontal approach won't do it, let's try the food." Said Astrid as she swayed side to side ready for a possible attack.

Snotlout was the closest so he ran up and grabbed the basket, only for the terror to jump up and latch onto his arm. He dropped the basket and started running around waving his arm frantically.

"Get-it-off-get-it-off-get-it-off!" He cried.

"I'm really not liking this plan." Said Fishlegs as he moved over to the safety of Gobber.

"Jeez, you guys are hopeless." Stated Astrid as she moved in for the basket.

Tuff was getting back up, massaging his swollen nose.

"What happened to punching it before it had the chance to bite you?" Asked Tuff.

"Shut up!" Yelled Snotlout, the terror was still clinging to him. He managed to pull it off only for it to cling to his other arm.

"Oh come on," He cried.

He went to punch it only for it to bite into his fist. It was becoming quite the show for Astrid and Tuff who couldn't stifle their giggling.

As much as Astrid enjoyed seeing Snotlout in pain, she wanted to try the food method. She went near Snotlout and held out some meat close to the ground.

"Come on little guy. You hungry?" She tried to say softly which wasn't too easy for her. The terror noticed the food and let go of Snotlout before creeping over to her.

"That's it, come on closer." She encouraged. But something was odd. He wasn't looking at the food in her hand; he was looking at her head. Before she knew it, it leapt on her and she let out a yelp. She tumbled away and looked behind her. It was... eating a fish.

"What?" She questioned. She heard laughter and saw Tuff rolling on the ground.

"Hahahaha that was hilarious, you should have seen the look on your face." Tuff laughed.

He'd gone and placed a fish on her head as a small prank. She was not amused and stomped over to him. He looked up only to get a foot to the face.

"O-ow, Astrid. S-stop. It was just a joke." He pleaded as she kicked him into the ground.

"Don't _ever_ do that again." She scorned, seething in rage. Unbeknownst to them, the terror was watching them in amusement. Vikings were strange and funny creatures it thought to itself.

While the teens were laughing and bickering, Fishlegs was sitting next to Gobber and had helped himself to some bread. The terror took notice and wandered carefully over to him, wary of the armed viking next to the large teen.

Fishlegs was rather frightened at first when he saw it. Gobber was taking a quick nap so didn't see it approaching. He thought of waking him up but saw the curiosity in the dragons' eyes. He looked to the bread in his hand. Maybe it was just hungry. He should probably throw the bread before it pounced for it like with Astrid. He threw the bread over.

"There ya go, "He whispered.

It gobbled down the food and continued its approach. Fishlegs froze, he didn't have any more and he really didn't want to get bitten. But before he could alert Gobber he heard...Purring? The sound was coming from the terror and it came right up to him only to rub against his arm and go to sleep. It reminded him of a cat.

"Hey look guys, Fishlegs did it." Exclaimed Snotlout.

"What!?" Tuff and Astrid cried.

The one person who wanted no part in this was the one to tame the dragon? But it was true. The small creature was purring against him in a peaceful slumber. Gobber soon awoke to see the tamed dragon as well.

"Wha'!? Beard of Thor, I can' believe my eyes."

"I actually tamed it. " muttered Fishlegs in dis-belief.

"I actually tamed it!" He shouted and put his arms in the air out of triumph.

The terror awoke from the sudden noise and ended up climbing up Fishlegs' arm and onto his shoulder.

"Agh," Yelped Fishlegs, still not used to being so close to a dragon.

"I wonder if we could tame the other dragons," Gobber wondered aloud. "Think of the possibilities. we could have our own dragons to defend the village from other dragons and any other tribes. "

He'd only just started to see the positive side to this as before, just the thought they could be tamed was just blown off as a silly idea. There wasn't any point to looking past it. But now!

"Hey aren't you forgetting something," smirked Tuff.

"Yeah, you said if we could tame a dragon, you would do whatever we wanted to you." Snotlout finished.

"O-oh um. Do we 'ave to decide this now? Don' you wan' to try out some more dragons firs'."

"As tempting as that sounds, I'll have to decline for now. We should probably study what it likes and find some easier methods of taming before moving onto the dangerous ones." Said Tuff.

"T-that sounds like a rather smart idea. A-are you actually Tuff in there." Stuttered Astrid.

The other teens were also staring at him. Since when did Tuff think logically and safely. Maybe the abduction of his sister had affected him more than they thought.

"Of course it's me. Who else would I be?"

"N-never mind," sighed Astrid. A safer Tuff was a better Tuff in her eyes.

"Now, onto Gobber's punishment," Tuff grinned. "I think we deserve constant access to the ring, including unsupervised. " Well there went the safety.

"Are you ou' of your mind, wha' if something wen' wrong and I wasn' around to protec' any of you." Yelled Gobber.

"Please. We can protect ourselves. Isn't that right Astrid." Asked Snotlout in his smug manner.

"Well I don't doubt my skills, but I don't know. I think it would be safer to have Gobber watching us. Although having access whenever we want sounds good." She replied.

Gobber let out a sigh. " Alrigh', those are terms I can accep'. You ge' access to the ring when ever you wan', but I'll need to be here before you open any cages. The teens looked thrilled.

"'owever, I do advise no' moving to the other dragons yet as you lo' got attacked several times before I' calmed down. With one of the other dragons, that would mean los' limbs or even death. I'll get some more terrors in for you to practice with. Is tha' all okay?" He Asked.

The teens nodded a few times in anticipation for more training.

"Grea', oh and one more thing. When Stoic gets back, no one is to mention the training straigh' away. 'e'll need it broken to him gradually. He asked me to start you lo' on your dragon training, but I doub' you want to do tha' now you're taming them right?"

The teens started mumbling to themselves in thought for a few seconds.

"I don't see why we can't still do it. Even if we do tame them, we'd need to know how to fight off wild dragons and the one's attacking the village. Maybe we could fight them in ways that wouldn't hurt them or do the fight training after they're tame." Reasoned Astrid.

"I think that's a good idea," Stated Fishlegs. I'm starting to warm up to this little guy and I wouldn't want to hurt him. And I doubt any dragon that you practice fighting on will trust you enough to become your pet. So I think training first then pretend fighting would be best."

"Yeah! like what Ruff was doing." Cried Tuff. " She was play fighting with her pet night fury right? So that means play fighting is fine. We'll get all the dragon fighting training we need as well as pet dragons."

The teens grew excited at the possibilities awaiting them if they could figure out how to tame the other dragons. Although it certainly wouldn't be as easy as they hoped and expected.

* * *

It was late evening on the island. The sun was just starting to set turning the already orange trees into a golden and burnt umber colouring. Ruff was catching fish again, in the cool water of the ocean. The waves swaying back and forth across her legs as she remained still, waiting for her prey.

Toothless had walked off after their 'moment'. She had been stunned at how their bond had happened. One moment she was discussing with Hiccup about making friends with Toothless and his ideas of a prosthetic fin. How she'd need to ride him for it to work. The next, Toothless was close enough to bite her head off. But he didn't and just blew her hair with his breath a few times. He must have been interested in the drawing since he began doing it himself. It had been rather funny seeing him use such a large branch.

When she got up to look at it, he hadn't liked her stepping on the lines he'd made. She had some fun teasing him at first before dodging the lines like he had wanted. Before she knew it she was dancing, and she was dancing closer and closer to him.

She'd felt his breath against her back again and had turned around. Since he'd let her this close, she'd wanted to touch him. He didn't like it at first, so she turned her head away. She was scared that he'd bit off her hand, but she realized she had to make the first step. If she showed him she trusted him, maybe he'd trust her.

When she felt his warm scales against her hand she'd felt elated. He trusted her!

She realized it would still take time to become as close as she was to Hiccup though. Not to mention this was a _true_ dragon. She figured she'd start with food. He'd accepted her touch so she hoped he'd accept her fish now too. He must be starving by now after all.

Hiccup was beside her trying to sneak up on some of the fish. It was cute to watch. Even though she now knew who he really was, she still saw the cute little dragon she'd grown to love.

Once she'd caught enough to feed herself and two dragons, she left the water in the direction of where Toothless lay.

"I caught you some fish," She yelled.

Toothless perked up an ear and took a glance at her over his shoulder.

"I know you're hungry, stop being so stubborn and have some." She laughed.

Toothless wanted to ignore her, he really did. He wasn't going to eat fish someone had caught for him, he was too full of pride to be given charity. He'd catch it himself.

But still, the smell of fresh fish reached his nostrils and he couldn't help having a good sniff. His pupils went large and he turned around to look at her. She'd caught some Icelandic cod, his favourite.

He shook his head, trying to get his mind off how wonderful it would taste. He wouldn't accept her pity!

"Jeez, you really are too prideful aren't you? If you like, you can accept this as a favour and not a gift. When you can catch your own you can give me some back." She offered.

Toothless' ears twitched. Maybe he could accept it if it wasn't charity. He felt so conflicted with his emotions and ideals. He didn't know what to do. Accept or decline?

_"Just take it!"_ Muttered Hiccup. _"You're being as stubborn as a Viking!"_

_"I'm nothing like a __Viking.__"_ He yelled.

_"Are too."_

_"Am not!_

_"Are too."_

_"Am not! Fine, I'll have the stupid fish."_

Toothless edged over to Ruffnut, his back arched right up and his head stayed low to the ground. He reached out for the fish in her hands and bit down - making sure not to take her fingers off. He gulped it down happily and approached her for some more.

"Okay okay, just follow me to your pile, " She chuckled as he sniffed her.

Hiccup grinned, he'd won the argument. It was a nice feeling. Back at the village he'd never won one, from the blame going on him for disasters that weren't his fault to his dad not listening to his opinion on something. It felt good to finally win. A dragon had seemed like a terrible fate the gods had damned him with at first, but now it felt like a blessing. He was being showered in care, was getting his opinions across and was praised for the things he did. There were lots of perks to being a dragon as well. He had a body that could fight and defend itself and he'd eventually be able to fly, something he couldn't even fathom before. Life was looking up.

Toothless was in heaven. After he'd eaten his fill he noticed Ruffnut giving Hiccup a scratch. He'd said he'd loved them and how good they felt, but he'd been repulsed by the idea of a Viking touching him. He'd already let her touch him though, and he'd eaten her fish so maybe a scratch wasn't too bad? He could at the very least try it out. He walked over and looked at her then down to Hiccup with big puppy dog eyes.

Ruffnut understood straight way and although a little stunned she carefully approached him and started to stroke his face. She moved to his neck and gave some light scratches. Then she used both hands to scratch his back and his neck.

It felt _so good_. Toothless leaned into her touch, momentarily forgetting about his hate for humans. Then she hit a nerve under his chin and he collapsed in ecstasy. A satisfied expression on his features.

"Whoa! How did I do that?" She asked herself. She called over Hiccup to try it out on him. She started scratching him and moved under his chin before he also gave a small grunt before slumping down in ecstasy.

"That might come in handy," She thought out loud.

* * *

A couple of days later, Toothless had definitely warmed up to Ruffnut more. He liked getting scratches and ate the fish she caught with out the previous hesitation.

They had even played games together such as hide and seek and chase. At some point she'd made a ball out of leaves and branches which the three of them enjoyed playing with.

They had also swum out to sea a bit where Toothless finally caught a fish of his own. It was only the one so he had it to himself, but he had a proud smirk on his features for the entire day.

* * *

Hiccup was nervous. Ruff had been able to make friends with Toothless so it was about time to tell him the truth. He worried how he'd react. Sure he was okay with being around a Viking _now_, but how would he feel when he found out the dragon who'd convinced him Ruffnut was safe, used to be a Viking themselves?

Maybe he should wait for a better moment. He had the perfect idea. He'd already made the plans for the prosthetic so he'd tell Ruffnut about going into the wilderness of the island to search for materials. But at the same time, they'd just have some fun and explore this new place. They could bring Toothless along, build up the friendship some more.

He wanted to make sure Toothless was completely happy about Ruffnut first. He really liked Toothless and he didn't want the truth to hurt their bond. Leave it too long though and it could hurt even more than telling him too soon. It was a tough balance, but he'd figure it out.

* * *

So here they were. They had set off to explore an hour prior. Toothless and Ruff had both been excited about the adventure. They'd all been stuck on the shingle beach for too long and needed some new entertainment.

The trees were truly spectacular, their trunks stretched so high and their roots protruded from the ground. Birds could be heard singing within the canopy among other creatures. Flowers of different colours and shaped littered the forests floor and tree trunks. The occasional red deer was spotted in some more open areas. Roars from predatory animals could also be heard in the distance, a large cat maybe?

This place was full of life and very beautiful.

Toothless' ears pricked for a moment before stepping backwards, dodging something that had fallen from above the trees. From the looks of the splattered remains on the floor, it had been a fruit. It had a yellow skin with orange flesh and black seeds inside. Hiccup had never seen anything like it. He gave it a lick only to be scolded by Toothless.

_"What are you doing?! You don't just lick some strange object that's fallen on the ground. What if it's poisonous?"_ He yelled. _"Not to mention we are carnivores. We don't eat plants."_

Toothless turned away after giving his lecture only to see Ruffnut doing the same thing. He shrieked in alarm and nudged her away from it.

"Aww, come on it tastes nice. I've never tasted a fruit so sweet before. It's amazing." She said in awe.

The only fruit that would grow on Berk were apples and they were always sour and powdery. Sometimes they had blackberries and strawberries brought to them by traders, but they were also not too pleasant.

Toothless watched her with a wary eye as if to make sure she didn't suddenly come out in a rash or begin choking to death.

Hiccup found it nice to see how protective Toothless has become over Ruffnut. It was like he'd come to see her as a reckless hatchling just like Hiccup. After the fun with the fruit tasting and luckily having no side effects from it, they moved on with the exploration. Wondering what mysteries they would find on this amazing island.

* * *

They were deep into the forest now and the flow of water could be heard. They were all rather thirsty so they went to take a look. Their only form of hydration so far had been the fish meat, snow and dew off the leaves in the early morning. The chance of fresh water couldn't be passed up.

It was a waterfall. It cascaded down into a stunningly clear pool of water that reflected a wide range of colours from the rocks beneath it. It was very deep and looked to even go down into some underwater caverns.

Toothless and Hiccup carefully made their way down the slippery rocks. Ruff on the other hand had a better idea. She jumped. There wasn't even any hesitance as she made the leap.

Worry crossed the dragons' features at the sudden action but passed when she surfaced and let out a triumphant cheer of joy.

"That was awesome!" She yelled. " You guys should try it too."

Toothless scoffed and carried on making his way down the safer way. Hiccup however was curious and stayed staring over the edge. It did look fun.

_"You're not seriously going to jump are you?"_ asked Toothless.

_"I might. It looks fun."_

_"You can't even fly yet. What if you break a wing?"_

_"Ruff can't fly but she jumped, if I keep them folded I should be fine."_

_"I advise against it."_

_"I think I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna be brave for once in my life and just go for it."_

So with that he backed away a bit and then ran off the edge, shrieking in delight. The adrenaline rush made him feel alive. Then he started to fall, a bit of panic washing over him. He'd meant to keep his wings folded but instinct had other ideas. He automatically opened all his fins and wings, before he knew it, he was gliding.

He was shocked and thrilled at the same time. He was flying. He was flying...past the pool of water... and heading straight for a tree! He tried to swerve to avoid it only to spin out of control. luckily he was over the water again and crashed into it. He struggled to swim to the surface since his open wings weighed him down but the desperation for air urged him on.

When he broke the surface Ruff swam over and gave him a hug.

"That a boy Hi-Blacky!" She yelled, almost forgetting about Toothless' presence. "You're braver than I thought and you actually flew. That's amazing. Well done."

Hiccup was blushing from all the praise under his scales, he wasn't used to all the positive treatment. Wings now folded, he swam over to a side of the pool and climbed up to greet Toothless who had made it down in a hurry to check he was okay.

_"What were you thinking?! I told you it was dangerous, you could have been badly hurt."_ He fretted.

_"I'm fine, I'm fine. Jeez, it turned out okay. Not to mention I actually flew."_ He grinned.

_"That wasn't flying, it was gliding. It's like falling in style."_ Toothless remarked.

_"Such a kill joy."_ Hiccup pouted. _"Come on let's have a drink and a swim."_

Toothless leaned down and lapped up the water. It was the cleanest water he'd ever had and it had a slight sweetness to it.

"This water's delicious," Said Ruff, hovering in the water as she cupped the liquid in her hands.

They swam around for a while, splashing each other in the water. At one point, Toothless dove down to catch a golden cultured fish only to not eat it since it tasted terrible. The expression on his face causing the other two to fall into a giggle fit. It seemed not everything was delicious on the island after all.

Hiccup soon noticed something strange about the waterfall, it didn't seem to have a backing. He swam over to it and stuck his head inside it.

"_Hey Toothless, come over here. You have to see this."_ Hiccup cried in excitement.

He also motioned Ruff over before going behind the waterfall fully. It was a cave. The rocks were just as colourful as below the pool water but there was something special about these. Littered across the walls, floor and ceiling were yellow - orange crystals and rocks. Hiccup recognized them as Topaz. They'd discovered a gold mine, but it was too beautiful a sight to even think of harvesting it.

"This is amazing." Remarked Ruffnut, before she began shivering. The water had been refreshing but also very cold. The ground had been covered in snow after all.

She decided to strip down to get the heavy wet clothing off her before it sapped any more heat.

Hiccup started to blush when he saw she was only in her underwear and breast band. She knew who he was but had striped down regardless. She didn't look embarrassed at all, she had no shame.

"What you staring at?" She teased.

Hiccup quickly looked away, clearly embarrassed by the display. Toothless didn't seem to notice as he looked around the cavern.

_"Lets explore further,"_ He suggested and started walking forward.

Hiccup and Ruff soon followed after him, curious as to what this cavern would entail.

* * *

**AN- so there we go. hope you enjoyed. I was originally going to end it after the papaya tasting. ( that's what the sweet fruit was) but I wanted to put some of the next part in for the guest whose losing a dog.**

**did anyone catch the toy story ref? also I had Hiccup do the jump since he's turned into quite the adrenaline junkie in the second movie. I can imagine him being even more so as a dragon. :D**

_**reviews ( I'm gonna try getting some of the user reviews done too from now one)**_

**UnknownBlackHand - I didn't want to use the Snoggletog tail because in my opinion, it doesn't look to allow that much freedom during flight. I expect that sometimes the fins are in different positions for turning and such. just mirroring the real fin wouldn't work too well. If you remember Hiccups cheat sheet, He had several positions that required two foot pedals. So simply tightening the fin isn't enough for comfortable flight.**

**Breyannia - I'm still trying to figure out how to go about the reveal myself. I have an idea but it conflicts with other ideas I have. I'll get it figured out though. I wouldn't have it end negatively though, don't worry.**

**snowflake - That's actually a great idea and I'm going to implement it into the story. thanks for the idea. :)**

**Phantom Earth - Glad you liked the bathing scene. It was fun to write haha. also thx again for viewing and faving my fan art. (link in profile for anyone else that wants to see it)**

**Fireflame159 - I'm trying to reach a happy medium with that. he'll eventually change back but there will be plenty of time for toothless and Hiccup to bond, have cute scenes and have toothless train him as well before then.**

**maximumride1444 - sorry for not replying sooner. Was still thinking of ages myself. I'm gonna have hiccup be 4/5 now and Toothless is gonna be 20. I wanted Toothless to be older than Hiccups real age in this fic and Hiccups dragon age is because of his size. the logic behind night fury hatchlings in this fic is they stay with their parents until around 10 years old.**

**thx to the rest of my reviewers. If I didn't reply here it's either because I wasn't sure how to reply (damn social anxiety) or it would have been thanking you for for support.  
**


	11. Truth

**AN- Welcome to chapter 11. I had this finished a day ago but I've been sorting out a beta to read through my chapters since I make a lot of grammar mistakes and that. My beta is GodofGreed. They have already gone through chapter 10 and now also this chapter. I think they have done a great job and I hope you guys think so too. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

The cavern was deeper than they first thought. They'd been wandering into its depths for over an hour now and yet it never became too dark. The topaz and ice inside, reflected light that came from an unknown opening. The only sounds that could be heard were the drips and dribbles of water cascading down the walls and the sounds of their footsteps as they padded along the damp floor. There were also the occasional pools of water that were so deep, you couldn't see the bottom.

"I wonder if there's an end to this thing." Said Ruffnut, voicing her thoughts out loud.

She was feeling chilled due to the lack of clothing and cool air inside the cavern, but compared to outside it was quite insulated.

Soon they came to a dead end. It wasn't exactly the end of the cave, rather they had ended up at a steep icy incline. The topaz had been gradually reducing in number as they came to this spot and from the looks of it, this one way slope may very well lead to a different one or back into the open island.

Toothless gave a snort and turned to go back only…Hiccup had tried to take a closer look and slipped. Ruffnut went to grab him only to also end up falling. They both screamed as they plummeted onto the slope and went sliding down at an alarming speed.

Toothless gave a cry of fear and immediately jumped after them. They were all now whizzing down this iced death slide, moving in-between passing pillars of ice.

Toothless was trying desperately to slow down by fanning out his wings but it wasn't helping much. Ruffnut was yelling out in pure joy, which just made him think she was crazy. How could she be enjoying this when they could all very well die at the end of it – if they didn't smash into a pillar first.

Hiccup was also scared but at the same time elated. He knew it was a dangerous situation they were all in but he couldn't help but enjoy the rush of it. He began laughing and screaming with Ruffnut.

Toothless then realized they were both probably crazy. Those damn reckless hatchlings. They swerved left and right sometimes falling through the air. Sometimes the slope spiraled upside down. It was one big roller-coaster without the safety belts.

Eventually it came to an end and they found themselves high in the air with a large drop into an iced over lagoon. Hiccup opened up his wings and grabbed Ruffnut before trying to glide down. Of course he ended up spiraling out of control again and plummeted into the water like a torpedo. Toothless glided down far more majestically, even with the missing tail fin.

"Woooohoooo, again, again." Cried Ruffnut as she broke the surface of the water. She was completely pumped from the excitement along with Hiccup who let out shrieks of joy as well. Until she realized how freezing cold the water was and started shaking badly.

"I-i-it's fr-fr-freeezing," She shivered. Hiccup quickly swam over to her and let her use him as a crutch before she froze and drowned.

He and Toothless looked around for somewhere to climb onto but unfortunately there wasn't anywhere. They were trapped in the lagoon. They were all going to freeze and drown at this rate. Hiccup and Toothless were okay for now due to their inner fire heating them, but that would only last so long in these circumstances.

Since Hiccup was supporting Ruffnut, Toothless dived down to see if there was an opening to escape through. The water was murky, so he had to swim around the sides for a while before he finally spotted somewhere.

Ruffnut wasn't doing too good, her skin was white as snow and her lips were blue. The tips of her fingers were going a light shade of purple.

_"Come over here, I found an opening. I'll just check how far it goes."_ Cried Toothless.

Hiccup swam as fast as he could, making sure Ruffnut didn't fall off. He kept crooning at her to stay awake.

They had to hurry, he was also starting to feel the cold. Toothless resurfaced when Hiccup arrived at the location.

_"It's quite far, I don't think she'll be able to hold her breath that long,"_ panted Toothless, clearly panicked.

Hiccup was scared but they didn't have a choice. If they didn't take this opening and wasted any more time looking for another one, she'd die anyway. He had to take the risk.

_"Let's go, we don't have much time."_ Replied Hiccup.

He looked over to Ruffnut, luckily she was still awake. He puffed out his cheeks a few times to her hoping she'd get the message.

Her mind was slowing down and her vision was getting blurry but she could just make out what he was telling her. She took a deep breath before hiccup turned around and grabbed her. He then dove after Toothless into the opening.

* * *

Toothless was right, it was far and Ruffnut was clearly in pain from holding the air in her lungs. He was also starting to feel a slight burning. His lungs were clearly better as a dragon but he still had his limits.

He kept on swimming as fast as he could even when his lungs were burning intensely and Ruffnut had passed out. Toothless however didn't seem to be struggling at all. He was worried the older dragon had misjudged the distance and didn't think he had enough breath to go on.

Just as his vision started to blacken though they finally reached the surface. Hiccup gulped in hair hungrily. He'd never felt so grateful to breath.

He quickly ignored his wonderful relief to look back at the unconscious girl on his back. He needed to get her to land, _fast._

He looked quickly and spotted a snow bank. He swam over and hefted his tired self up onto it. He lay Ruffnut down and placed his ears to her chest, his own heart pounding in his chest in hope she was still alive.

Seconds felt like hours until finally he heard it.

*babump...babump*

She was alive! Although it wasn't the time to celebrate, it was a weak beat and she wasn't breathing. She was also deathly pale and cold.

_"Toothless! Light a fire, we need to get her warm!"_ He yelled desperately.

Toothless ran over and dug into the snow until he came to dirt. He quickly burnt the ground and moved onto another patch of snow to clear. There weren't any sticks to light so this would have to do.

While he was doing that, Hiccup was doing chest compressions on Ruffnut. Toothless didn't know what an earth he was doing but he trusted that Hiccup did.

It was going to be awkward but he couldn't think about that right now. He pushed his embarrassment aside and tried his best to give her mouth to mouth. His dragon mouth didn't really fit right but he was able to blow some air into her lungs regardless.

It took a painful fifteen minutes before she finally coughed up the water. Hiccup almost passed out in relief. He had started to give up hope and had tears pouring out his eyes.

"Wha'? What happened?" She croaked out. She started to shiver again and looked down to see Hiccup crying into her chest, just like the first night they'd spent together.

Toothless, now finished with warming the ground around them, came over to lie next to them. He pulled Ruffnut into his warm hide and cloaked a wing around them both.

He'd been terrified. He thought he'd lose his two hatchlings from the moment they fell onto the ice slide and was only just calming down. They were safe for now, that was all that mattered to him at that moment. He didn't care that he was cuddling a Viking girl any more. She was like a hatchling to him now and he'd protect her like one of his own.

* * *

When they woke up, it was cold. Apparently the water had risen during the night, coming over the land they were resting on and washing out the burnt ground. They were laying in a shallow covering of the freezing water, some of it had even started to ice over.

Toothless' inner fire couldn't keep them fully protected. He was struggling to keep himself warm. They had to get out of here before they all froze to death.

Ruffnut stayed as close to Toothless as she could since it was still warmer next to him than wandering around in her underwear.

So Hiccup was the one to start looking for a way out. He was shivering lightly as he walked along the shallow water. He couldn't see any openings in the walls. There was only the gaping hole above them. If only they could fly.

Instead, he'd have to dive into the freezing water _again_ to look for more underwater openings. He reluctantly lowered himself in, trying his best to ignore the biting cold. He searched for a long while, with no luck. They were truly trapped, they were going to die.

_"There's no way out,"_ Muttered Hiccup sadly when he'd returned to Toothless' side. Toothless looked downcast, if only he could fly, he'd be able to get them out of there. But...there was a way. It would be difficult since it wasn't the easiest way however, they didn't have a choice.

He'd have to teach Hiccup to fly. Hopefully he'd be strong enough to carry the girl out too. There wasn't any hope for him but that didn't matter. He'd make sure his hatchlings got out of this alive with or without him.

_"There is a way."_ Toothless stated, causing Hiccup to look up at him.

_"There is? But I didn't see anything. Where did you see an exit?"_ Toothless looked upwards at the huge hole in the ceiling.

_"But we can't fly."_

_"No, I can't fly but you can. You just need to learn."_

_"You'll teach me? But I thought you said I couldn't learn unless you could also fly."_

_"It would have been the best method. This method of training I'll be giving you is a lot harder and may not work. But we have to try."_

Hiccup looked at the fragile form of Ruffnut in Toothless' embrace.

_"We don't have any other options, we need to try. How do I start?" _Asked Hiccup in a determined tone.

_"You've been practicing to move your wings and fins correct?"_ He asked, continuing when Hiccup gave a nod.

_"I want you to run as fast as you can and leap as high as you can before spreading out your fins and wings into a glide. Then touch down as balanced as possible. Don't try turning yet, just go straight. Keep doing it until I say it's enough."_

Hiccup gave another nod before running away and leaping. Since he wasn't too far in the air when he leaped it made it incredibly more difficult to glide than when he'd leapt and fell off greater heights. He kept on falling forward and smashing his face into the soaked ground.

* * *

After several more tries he stomped up to Toothless in a frustrated pout. _"I can't do it! It's too hard. There must be a better way to do this."_ He cried. His face hurt and he was freezing, he just wished he could magically fly straight away without the practice.

_"There is an easier way, but as I told you, it's not possible in these circumstances. You just have to do it the hard way unfortunately."_

_"But I can't even get into a glide, I keep falling on my face."_

_"You need to run faster, leap higher and catch the air the second you're off the ground."_ He stated.

_"But I'm already running as fast I can and leaping as high as I can! I can't get my wings and fins out that fast, I'm still not too good at controlling them. The wing span is too large!"_

_"Yes, that's a problem our species has. Unlike others who have smaller wings when they are young, we have a long wingspan the moment we hatch. Just getting off the ground can take a couple of years. Full control takes a few more years after that. We have to carry our young over long distances a lot until they are about five years of age. Given the look of you I'd say you were about four years old but your experience makes you seem more like two. How long were you separated from your parents?"_

_"I -"_ Hiccup stopped himself. What good would it do to lie now? At the rate he was going, he doubted he'd learn to fly before he succumbed to the cold. It would be better to just get the truth out. toothless might end up killing him and Ruff, but it would at least be a faster death than the one awaiting them.

_"I...I don't know how to tell you this."_

Toothless looked at him in confusion.

_"I haven't always…been a dragon!"_

_"What an earth does that mean?"_ Toothless remarked. He didn't understand what Hiccup was going on about. Hasn't always been a dragon? How could he have been anything else? Maybe the cold was making the hatchling delusional.

_"I got turned into one by witchcraft. It was a curse. I used to be a human. A Viking!"_ Hiccup cried. He was shaking, no longer from the cold but from the fear of how Toothless would react.

Toothless was at a loss for words. What was he saying?

_"The cold is getting to you, your losing your mind! I've never heard such an unbelievable tell."_ He shouted back. The sudden roars alerted Ruffnut awake. Seeing Toothless pissed and so close too her terrified her and she scrambled away from him.

She didn't know what they were arguing about, but she didn't want to be near the sharp teeth and claws when she had nothing to protect herself with.

_"I'm not lying, it's the truth,"_ Hiccup shrieked. _"You questioned why everything seemed so new to me like the feeding, the flying and the bathing. I used to be a human, I never knew this life before."_

As much as Toothless hated to admit it, it did make sense. A hatchling his age shouldn't have been so inexperienced even if he had lost his parents at a younger age. But he just couldn't accept it, his hopes for the company of one of his kind blinded his reason. The only Dusk-striker he finds in the years he's been banished happens to be a human cursed to look like a dragon? That was unacceptable, it was unfair.

_"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I was afraid. My village, my own father saw me as the enemy. They were going to kill me until you jumped in. You were protecting me at the time so I played along, so I could survive. But even when we escaped I couldn't bring myself to tell you because I couldn't survive on my own. Not to mention Ruff. You would have killed her if I didn't show you she wasn't a threat. She'd protected me and cared for me before you arrived, she really is different. I know you see that yourself now."_

Tears ran down his cheeks as he continued to give his plea to Toothless. The truth was finally out and he wasn't going to stop until he'd said all he could.

_"Does __she__ know?"_ He seethed. _"Y-yes. Since I used to be a Viking I could write down words to communicate with her."_

_"Why did you tell her before me? Were you plotting something together? Planning to kill me when I wasn't looking so you could escape the real dragon?"_

_"N-no of course not."_

_"Then why?"_

_"She was scared of you and I needed her to trust and befriend you. I hoped that you would trust her in return. Then my plan would work."_

_"Plan? You just said you weren't plotting to betray me."_ He growled

_"I'm not, honest."_

_"Why should I believe you when you've been lying to me this whole time?"_

_"I plan to help you fly again."_

Toothless looked shocked at this. It wasn't possible for him to ever return to flight. He'd lost his fin.

_"How?"_

_"I'm going to make a prosthetic fin that will need a human rider to control it. That way you will be able to fly again."_

_"Rider?! Why would I let a human ride me. I'd look ridiculous."_

_"Stop letting your pride get in the way. Being able to fly is better than being grounded isn't it?"_

Toothless didn't know what to say. It was true he'd give anything to be able to enjoy the freedom and joy of flight again, but having the girl ride him? He couldn't stand the thought of how he'd be mocked by the other dragons. A powerful dragon like himself needing the help of a Viking, the enemy of dragons.

He turned away from Hiccup, a look of anguish on his face.

_"I need time to think, don't talk to me,"_ he said before running and gliding over to the far end of the bank.

_"W-wait, Toothless."_ Yelled Hiccup.

He was about to run after him but stopped himself. He shouldn't have kept his secret from him for so long. Toothless was upset and his heart ached knowing he was the cause. He'd give Toothless the time to sort out his thoughts, even though they didn't really have the time to spare.

There was only one way out of this place and he was the only one who could get them out. He had to learn to fly without Toothless' help. Ruff came over to him, clearly shaken from the recent argument.

"W-what was t-that about? She shivered. Hiccup wanted to tell her but the ground was flooded. She soon realized this as well.

"T-tell me later t-then okay?"

He gave a nod.

She went to snuggle into his warmth but he pushed her away.

"Wha'?"

He knew she needed the warmth but he needed to learn to fly now! Just sitting around keeping her warm would only delay the inevitable.

He flapped his wings a bit to let her know why he'd refused her, but her mind had slowed down some in the cold and she tried to hug him again. He yet again pushed her away and this time ran off.

She'd understand soon when she saw him practicing. It didn't stop him from feeling bad about it though. Toothless was meant to be keeping her warm but he was currently trapped in his conflicting thoughts. It was too dangerous for her to go over there in case he changed his mind about being friends with a Viking.

* * *

He knew he needed to get his speed and strength up to perform the low glide, so he just ran back and forth leaping here and there until he ran out of breath and slowed to a walk. He kept repeating this for a couple hours before flapping his wings and stretching out his tail fins all at the same time.

After another couple hours, he was aching and fatigued but he knew he didn't have time to rest. Ruff was curled in on herself still shivering. Her fingers and toes were going purple again. He wanted to keep going, but she came first. He jogged over to her and let her cuddle into him. He draped his wings over her the best he could but he wasn't as big as toothless so couldn't do it as well.

The water surrounding them also didn't help, it just kept sapping their heat. He briefly wondered if the water would continue to rise and whether they'd still be alive by tomorrow to experience it.

Once some colour had some back to her skin and he purple colouring was gone he again pushed her away.

"W-wait, please stay. It's s-so cold," She begged. But he persisted, it hurt to ignore her pleas but now that she had warmed up some, It was time to get back to the priority of flight training.

He practiced the running and leaping some more and flexed his extra limbs to get ready to try the gliding again. Hopefully he'd improved his skills to pull it off. He ran to his top speed and leap and used all his strength to leap as high as he could, then he quickly fanned out his fins and wings. However he was still just a bit too slow on the wing reflex.

His face met the ground yet again. He wouldn't give up now though, he tried again and again, learning from his mistakes. He found it better to open the wings halfway before taking the leap. He learnt to keep his tail and back straighter and his wings at a slight angle to catch the air better.

After hours of trying he finally did it. He practiced a few more times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. He pulled it off another two times. He'd done it! He'd learnt to glide the hard way.

He had a quick drink before heading back to Ruffnut to top her up on some warmth and take a deserved rest.

* * *

He didn't know what to think. The little hatchling he'd grown to love wasn't really a dragon? He looked like a dragon, he ate like a dragon and he spoke like dragon. Yet his mind wasn't dragon. It was Viking.

He didn't think such things as magic existed, but if Hiccup was telling the truth, then he feared it. If it could do something like turning one creature into another, what else could it do? Then again, he remembered that women. The way in which she was able to fire blasts at him like a dragon. Was that magic? Could all humans do it? No, if they could then the Vikings would be using it instead of their iron weapons. It was far more powerful.

If it was a rare skill then perhaps it was that same women who turned Hiccup into a Dusk-striker. She was dead now so she couldn't do any more harm, but she also couldn't return Hiccup to the way he was. But why would he want to turn back anyway?

Being a dragon was far better, and a Dusk-striker at that. He had strong fireproof scales, sharp claws and teeth, he could fly and he could create fire at will. Dragons were far superior than those mindless beasts.

But then he thought about it being the other way around. What if he'd been turned into a human. His fellow dragons would attack him and he'd be defenceless. He wouldn't be able to communicate with them to tell them he was one of them, If they even believed him. There were most likely some perks to being a human he wasn't aware of but he'd still want to change back into the form he was born as.

Hiccup had said his own father had tried to kill him. He must have been so scared and heartbroken. He'd been forced to flee the only home he'd ever known, just like him.

Hiccup wouldn't turn on him, he realized that now. He was scared and lonely and Toothless was the only dragon around that would actually give a shit about him. He knew this because that nightmare had clearly not cared enough about him to stay and defend him from the Vikings.

How horrible it must have felt to not only be attacked my your own nest, but for one of the creatures you'd turned into to leave you to die as well.

Plus that Viking girl, she didn't want to kill dragons any more. That meant she had sided with the enemy and would be branded a traitor to her kind. She could no longer return either and the love she showed for Hiccup led him to believe she wouldn't harm him either.

Hiccup had offered him a great favour. He wanted to help him fly again, and he'd just shrugged it off as embarrassing. He really did let his pride get in the way sometimes. So he'd go through with it. If they got out of this place alive then he'd allow Hiccup to make him a prosthetic and let the girl ride him.

Finally organizing his thoughts he looked toward the other two. He was amazed by what he saw. Hiccup had done it! He was gliding. Had he been practicing all this time while he had been over here doing nothing but sulk in his own selfish depression?

Guilt washed through him. Hiccup had his priorities straight, he was trying to get them out of here while he himself had all but given up and was ready to accept death.

He needed to apologize.

* * *

**AN- So now Toothless knows.  
I'm already half way through the next chapter so expect that up within the next day or two.**

**Thankyou everyone who reviewed, followed and faved. I'm not going into detailed reviews this time since it's 5.40am. The reason I'm up so late is because I saw GodofGreed hadd finished beta-ing this chapter and I wanted to get it posted before I went to bed. **

**Tell me what you thought and look forward to the next one.**


	12. Flight

**AN- welcome to chapter 12. This one is over 7000 words. Mainly because I couldn't see a place to end it before my initial planned ending which you will see at the end of the chapter. However, I now have 100 followers, 124 reviews and 71 favs. I'm so happy :D. so I think the longer chapter is a nice treat for you guys. Enjoy.**

**Thanks GodofGreed for beta-ing again. **

* * *

Hiccup noticed Toothless approaching and got up in a guarded stance just in case.

_"Calm down, I'm not going to attack you."_ Toothless said sadly, _"I'm sorry for earlier, it was an unexpected shock. Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined a human could be turned into a dragon. If I'd known sooner, I may not have even given you the chance to explain. I would have definitely left such an abomination to die and killed Ruff. I'm sorry. It must have been hard telling me the truth."_

Hiccup was stunned at the apology. But he was glad they had come to an understanding and it seemed like Toothless didn't mind he used to be a Viking any more.

_"And I'm sorry for keeping the truth from you." _

_"No, I can understand why you did. If I was in the same situation and been turned into a human, I would have done the same thing. I can only imagine how a Viking would react to a dragon turned human."_

Hiccup hadn't even thought of the possibility of it being the other way around. Perhaps that would mean the transformation was reversible then? But then, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to his life as a human. He was always so weak and useless in their eyes. He was tired of the way the village treated him. He was clearly never meant to be a Viking. And now the possibility of ever being one had gone along with his human form. He was a dragon now and he preferred it that way.

_"Would __you __want to change back __if that happened__?"_ Hiccup asked. He already knew the answer but thought to ask anyway.

_"Of course I would want to change back! Humans are weak mindless beasts that rely on weapons and armor to protect themselves! They can't breath fire and they can't fly! They can't even keep themselves warm so they have to wear the skins of other animals." _He said distastefully. _"What I don't understand about you though is how you sided with us dragons straight away. I certainly wouldn't have sided with the Vikings that had slaughtered many of my kind, whether I'd been turned into one or not."_

_"Well I was never truly one of them anyway. I was pretty much the worst Viking ever born. I was weak and scrawny and I always got in their way. I always seemed to unintentionally help the dragons with their raiding over fighting them. The village hated me and I was an embarrassment to my father. He was the chief and I was his heir, but it was more likely my cousin would inherit the title since I was such a… hiccup. I wouldn't side with the dragons in the way of raiding the village and killing Vikings, but being one myself now I don't see why I shouldn't get along with them."_

_"I see. So if given the chance, you wouldn't want to turn back then?" _

_"No, becoming the dragon is the best thing to have ever happened to me. I see it more like a blessing then a curse. I'm strong with my own weapons and armor, I can fly and I can breath fire. The only thing I can say I miss are my hands."_

_"Your hands? Why?"_

_"Because even though almost everything else about me was a failure, my hands held skill. I could draw really well and I could forge the best weapons and armor. I worked in a blacksmith where I could put my talents to use. It was the only place I was appreciated. I forged all sorts of things there including jewelry and my crazy inventions that would always end in disaster, but I enjoyed coming up with the ideas and making them. My latest was a bola thrower that I was gonna use...I was gonna use it to shoot down a night fury."_ He said with a guilty expression.

_"So if you hadn't been transformed, you would have tried to shoot me down?"_ He growled.

_"Killing a dragon is everything in the village. I thought if I could kill a night fury my life would get infinitely better. I probably would have missed anyway though. My inventions never end up doing what they're supposed to do,"_ He said sadly.

_"I would have liked to see what your pathetic human self looked like, but oh well. It wouldn't be possible to turn back now anyway."_

_"Huh? Why do you say that? I thought if it was possible to turn me into a night fury I could be changed back."_

_"It's not the possibility of the spells existence that's the problem, it's the one who would cast it. I killed a woman in Berk's forest before I rescued you. She had the power to use fire blasts like a dragon that I now know as magic. I believe she was the one to transform you. But she'd dead now so she can't change you back."_

Hiccup was shocked. He'd been worried that terrible woman was still out there, causing suffering to others. A smile graced his mouth. He was relieved she was gone. Sure, now he couldn't change back. But what did that matter? He'd already said he didn't care for being a human any more so it was fine.

_"You seem happy,"_ Toothless remarked.

_"I am. It's like a weight has been lifted now that I know she can't hurt anyone else."_

Toothless smiled and gave Hiccup a dragon hug.

His head leaned over Hiccup's shoulder and Hiccup did the same with him. Ruffnut watched with a smile as well. What ever had set them apart before had been sorted out and they were friends again.

* * *

_"Now, let's get back to flying lessons. I saw you perform a successful glide which I'm very impressed about, so we can move onto the next step."_

_"Right! But could you help Ruff warm up some first, I couldn't do it too well on my own."_

_"Sure," _He replied and began torching the wall. Ruffnut shuffled in close to the chard surface and sighed in content as she felt the warmth seep into her skin.

_"Okay, now we're going to learn how to lift off the ground."_

_"Couldn't we have done that first? It would have made the gliding easier."_

_"No, since you need to learn to gather the air n your wings properly first. You also need to learn the correct positioning of your body, tail, wings, and fins. Just explaining it doesn't help either since you need to experience it for yourself and build up body memory. Flying is more simple but heavily relies on gliding knowledge."_

_"Oh, I see. It makes sense when you put it like that."_

_"Now I want you to run and leap again, but this time raise your wings right up and flap before going into a glide. Try to flap them at the same time to stay straight. It'll take several tries to get the balance right." _

So he did. He ran as fast as he could then opened his wings halfway before leaping. He almost went straight into a glide again after the constant repetition but he forced himself to lift them right up and flap down, angling his wings to catch the air. He lifted slightly only to swerve straight to the left and have his tail lift itself upwards.

_"Aaaghhh!"_ he cried as he crashed into the flooded ground.

He heard Toothless laughing several meters away from him.

_"Hahahaha, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you not too keep your back tail fins completely straight. They should only be straight for gliding, when you want to create left you should hold them up in more of a 'v' shape. So do that on the lift off then re-straighten for the glide. The swerve was because your left wing flapped half a second faster than your right."_

Hiccup picked himself up with a groan before running back to try again. Why did flying have to be so complicated? He ran again, partially opened his wings and leapt. This time he made the 'v' shape with his back tail fins and flapped. He gained some lift but ended up swerving to the right this time. Toothless was laughing again. He'd get him back for that later.

He decided to practice flapping his wings for a bit, trying to keep them in sync. When he felt he was ready he attempted the lift off again. This time, he did it. He managed to flap himself into a lift once before gliding down gracefully after all the practice from earlier.

_"Yes! I did it,"_ He cheered. Ruffnut had been watching the whole thing and started clapping and whooping in celebration.

_"Well done,"_ Toothless congratulated, _"Now you can try getting higher. It should be easy now you can do the first lift and your glide is perfect."_

Hiccup nodded and went to try some more before Toothless held him back.

_"Hold on. I just want to inform you about turning. We don't want you flying straight into a wall."_ He chuckled. _"When you want to turn, lean your body sideways in the direction you want to go. Spread your wings at a slight angle, keeping them in line with your body. Your back tail fins are the most important part. The fin in the direction you are going needs to be angled down and the other needs to be up. The sharpness of the turn will cause the angles to be different. Wind also has a deciding factor in everything. You don't need to worry about it in here, but when you are outside, you'll need to constantly re-balance yourself as to not spiral out of control. When you are halfway through a turn, make sure to flap to maintain altitude. That's all for now, good luck,"_ He grinned.

Flight just got even more complicated and these were just the basics. He could already see the crashes ahead of him.

When he lifted off this time he kept flapping instead of changing into a glide. He went higher and higher until a wall was closing in on him. He was scared of messing it up and crashing but he had to try, so he angled his wings left and changed his tail fin positions at the same time.

Unfortunately, he angled his wings too much and he flipped upside down. Not knowing how to catch the air in this position he started to drop like a rock.

Thinking quickly, he tucked in his wings and spiraled back up right. He re-opened his wings and went into a glide before hitting the water. He let out a relieved sigh before flapping again.

Toothless had been impressed by Hiccups quick reaction after his initial failure. He'd spun back around and gone back into a glide like an expert.

What amazed him even more was how fast he was learning. Only yesterday he couldn't glide properly, now he was up in the air learning to turn and instinctively performing advanced correction maneuvers. He kept watching as Hiccup practiced. He overshot it again the second time but yet again performed the expert maneuver before trying again.

His third time, he undershot it and ended up fanning his wings out to stop himself from crashing into the wall. He bounced off it and went into another glide. It was hard to believe he'd been born a Viking when he was taking to the air like a natural.

It was the tenth try before Hiccup was able to do a wide turn in either direction. He didn't stop there though. He kept practicing, making the turns tighter until he could switch direction rapidly.

He even started doing spins in the air. He was having the time of his life. Flying was amazing. He felt so free and alive. The rush he felt whenever he came close to crashing but then correcting himself felt revitalizing.

His heart was pounding and his breathing heavy after all the exertion but he didn't want to stop. He just wanted to keep pushing himself, see what else he could do in the air. He even flew up very high, but not enough to leave the cavern, before diving down at full speed and fanning his wings out at the last second. He even fit some rolls in there.

When he started to find it harder to move and his eyes were drooping from exhaustion, he finally landed.

_"You're a natural," _Toothless remarked. _"You've already gotten to the level a five year old should be at, within a day! I'm beyond impressed with your progress."_

Hiccup felt elated, he'd never received such amazing praise in his life. Not only had he learnt to fly but he'd also performed advanced skills within the first day of practicing. He was aching all over from it but he didn't care. The feel of freedom and joy the flying gave him and the way Toothless was showering him in praise for his efforts numbed out the pain. He couldn't be happier. He just wished there was something to eat. All the exercise had made him ravenous.

_"So hungry,"_ he moaned.

_"Well, go out and eat then,"_ smirked Toothless.

_"You mean you think I'm ready to fly out of here?"_He asked.

_"Well from the amount of skill you've shown, yes. I think you'll adapt to the wind currents easily since you're such a natural. Just remember to bring something back for me."_

_"S-sure. Are you gonna be okay on your own?"_

_"I'll be fine, I'll fire up the walls to keep myself from hibernating."_

_"You hibernate?"_

_"Yeah, but only when it becomes far too cold to live in or there's not much food to go around. I haven't hibernated for at least ten years since the last famine my nest experienced. Plus, It wouldn't be a good idea to slip into hibernation here. With the water rising, I'd end up drowning."_

_"How old are you anyway? I mean I haven't really told you my actual age but I was just wondering. I'm fourteen myself."_

_"Fourteen? Why did the spell make you about four or five then?"_

_"Maybe it was my size? I wasn't that big. A bit shorter than Ruffnut."_

_"Well I'm 20 years old. Since there's only a six year different, it makes me more of a brother than a father to you."_

_"You saw yourself as my dad? I much prefer the older brother thing. So…brothers?"_ Hiccup asked while outstretching his paw.

Toothless put his own paw in Hiccups and gave a grin, _"Brothers."_

_"Okay, now before you go I want to teach you one more thing. What I want you to do is take off without the run up. Simply open your wings up high, then leap up and flap down at the same time. It helps to crouch and leap forwards during the jump. This is the more common method of take off since run up's aren't always possible and can waste time in escaping. It was just easier to learn to fly with the run up."_

_"Okay, I'll try." _Hiccup replied. He crouched low and held up his wings, with an unconscious wiggle of his bottom he leapt forwards into the air and flapped down hard. After the take off he was flying again.

_"Well done Hiccup. Now you can leave, just grab the girl in your paws, and make sure to land as soon as you can since the extra weight will put strain on your wings."_ he yelled up at him.

Hiccup dived down and grabbed a stunned Ruffnut who had no clue of what was happening. "Eyahhh," She screamed, not expecting to suddenly find herself in the air.

"What are you doing?!"

But she didn't need the answer when she saw they were getting closer to the opening of the cavern. "But what about Toothless?" She cried. He just shook his head. He'd explain when they landed.

* * *

They were finally out and Hiccup felt amazing. The wind blew past him at the high altitude and he could hear the wonderful bird song once again. The view from this height was spectacular; he could see the whole island.

He spotted the waterfall they had first entered and headed over to it. It would be good to get Ruff back in her warm clothing.

Like Toothless had said, he'd easily adjusted to the wind currents. It required more focus to balance along with it and holding Ruff didn't help, but he managed.

After the thrill of finally getting out, he realized how much pain his wings were in. The extra weight really did put quite a strain on his already tired and aching wings.

They landed beside the waterfall pool and Hiccup decided to rest on his now shaking legs as Ruffnut went to fetch her clothes.

He was exhausted. After spending the entire day learning how to fly and finally getting out of there. He began to drift off. Now they just had to get toothless out of there. But he'd rest first. And with that he fell into a deep sleep, he didn't even notice when Ruff came back and led beside him.

* * *

When morning arrived, Hiccup found himself entangled with Ruffnut.

His legs and arms were tangled and wrapped round her as she did the same. His wings were also draped over them. He quickly untangled himself and shuffled away in embarrassment, causing her to wake. She let out a yawn and stretched.

"Morning Hiccup. Sleep well?" She asked.

He gave a nod. Now they had some dirt under them he decided now was a good a time as any to update Ruffnut on what was happening.

"So he knows your secret now huh? It's good that he's okay with it now. I was wondering what the teenage angst was about. But I'm glad you're friends again and he's willing to let me ride him," She smiled. Just then they spotted some deer grazing near by. They looked over at the two for a second before dashing into the forest. Hiccup and Ruffnut's stomachs growled. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

He gave a nod of agreement before they both ran after where the deer had just gone. Hiccup stopped Ruffnut when he caught the whiff of the deer nearby. They both hunkered down, ready to stalk their prey. They were currently down wind so the deer couldn't smell them.

"Since I don't have a weapon, I'll sneak over to the opposite side and scare them towards you. Your a dragon now so you're strong enough to grab it and tear into it's throat with your sharp teeth."

He nodded and got ready as she slowly and silently crept to her position. Hiccup eyed up the prey, there were a few does and a couple of fawns. This was his first hunt and he didn't want to blow it, so he'd go for the fawn.

But then again, It wouldn't be a very big meal and there were two dragons to feed. It would be better to go for a doe. He didn't have much more time to think as the sound of a branch snapping could be heard to the upper right of him.

She'd made a mistake and now they were running diagonal to his position. He immediately ran out and chased down a doe. He was close behind her, but rather than get close enough to go for her throat he bit down on her hind leg. The doe gave out a panicked cry as she fell over.

But before Hiccup could pounce on her she kicked him in the face with her other hind leg, stunning him. She'd just started to run off again but Hiccup quickly pounced and bit into the soft flesh of her throat, crushing her windpipe. He felt the life drain out of it and the rush of the hunt cooled down. He let go and realized what he'd done.

It shouldn't affect him, he needed to eat. But he'd just killed a living creature.

He could taste its blood in his mouth as he watched it seep out and drain into the dirt. He felt himself going into shock at what he'd done. When Ruff came running up to him it startled him into turning and growling in a crouched down position. She stepped back scared.

"H-Hiccup, are you okay?" She said in fear. His eyes were wild, pupils slit. He was acting like a beast guarding its meal.

But at the sight of her, his pupils grew large and a guilty expression crossed him at what he'd just done. Hunting and killing this animal had brought out his feral side.

He needed to control it better or he risked harming Ruff. He carefully walked over to her before writing, _'sorry, I don't know what came over me.'_

She let out a relieved breath, "It's okay, you just scared me there. I guess it was just your natural instinct kicking in after the kill. I shouldn't have approached you so suddenly."

Seeing the blood marring his scales, she gave him a pet rather than a hug before walking over to the carcass. "This hide would be useful for the prosthetic don't you think?"

He gave a quick nod, his mouth watering to get a bite of the delicious deer flesh.

"I need to skin it before you can eat it," She scolded.

She pulled out the spearhead. She'd detached it from the stick and hid it in her clothing. She'd had it wedged in her breast band the whole time without a need to use it again until now. She cut down the belly of the doe and along the insides of the legs, carefully cutting and pulling the skin away from the flesh. When she was done she folded it up and looked over to Hiccup who was now biting into it and gulping it down, getting blood all over his head and paws.

He really had become more dragon than human now. He hadn't even hesitated to dig into the raw meat. She started cutting into the doe, making small portions to cook for herself later. She couldn't eat it raw like the dragons after all. When she was done with that she asked Hiccup to drag the carcass over to the pond. She didn't want some predator going for it or her as she went to wash the hide. She found a stream coming out from the pond and left the hide in there. She needed to keep it moist for now and didn't want it sinking in the deep pool of water.

She cut into the doe carcass some more, this time cutting off the legs and head.

"You can take the rest back to Toothless if you've had your fill," She stated. "Just don't take too long, I don't want to be stuck out here alone."

He gave a nod, then grabbed the carcass in his mouth and took off. He switched it to his paws in mid air and made his way back to the cavern.

Ruff, took out the bones from the legs while she waited. She could make some nice weapons from them. They would be better than the stone spear head she was currently using. She also cut out the tendons so she could make some sinew for a possible bow. She's find some cedar bark and pine sap when Hiccup got back.

She had always hated the cloth making lessons she had to learn when she was younger. All the females had to learn how to make fabric from wool and hide, and thread from tendons, bark, fur and wool. She also had to learn how to turn that thread into string or rope and that fabric into wearable clothing. But she was grateful for it now.

She was stuck in the wilderness and the knowledge she had learnt was vital. With it she could make the prosthetic fabric for Toothless' tail and she could make some warmer clothing for herself. She wasn't that good with weapons, that was what the males specifically learnt. But she was sure Hiccup could help with that part since he'd worked in the forge.

* * *

When Hiccup returned, he looked worried. _'The water rose again.'_ He wrote.

"How much?" she asked, concerned she wouldn't get the prosthetic done in time. It would take at least a couple of days to get it finished.

'_Well before it was up to your ankles, now it would be up to your knees.'_

Ruffnut got up. She had to get started on the rope. "Guard the fur, I'll be back in a bit." She told him before walking off to find some suitable bark. She'd already laid the tendons out to dry.

She planned to use the sinew mainly for a bow and some other weapons. It wasn't waterproof so she'd need to seal it with beeswax, but even then she doubted it would be enough to stop it getting wet and it was too risky to use on a prosthetic that would put a lot of strain on it. The wet sinew would easily fall apart in the air, so she couldn't use it on the fin. She found what she was looking for, a cedar tree. She was glad to find one on this island. Now she had a place to collect both the bark and sap. She didn't have anything to hold the sap just yet so she got to work stripping the trunk and harvesting the softer inner bark. When she had her arms full of it, she headed back.

When she got back she saw Hiccup was doing something, he had his head over the water and...blew fire! He'd learnt to create fire! When had he leant to do that?

"Hey Hiccup, I'm back. When did you learn to do that?" She asked.

Hiccup turned around and began writing in the dirt._ 'I asked Toothless when I delivered the doe. He told me the basics and I'm practicing now.'_

"Cool. Do you think you could burn the ground a bit so the tendons I've laid out can dry faster?" He gave a nod and blew some on the ground, coughing a bit after it.

_'I keep inhaling the gas'_ he wrote.

"Aww…well I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, thanks for the fire."

She got to work on the bark. She laid a strip on a stone surface and started pounding it with a smooth rock she'd found near by. She kept going until it came apart into small stringy strips and de-tangled them. She repeated this with all the bark.

Next she twisted the pieces together. She knotted more strands onto each individual thread at different sections until she had several long pieces of string. She then reverse twisted two of each string together to make a stronger rope. The friction of the reverse twist held it together.

It was mid afternoon by the time she finished and her fingers hurt like no tomorrow. Hiccup had also been practicing the whole time and had his tongue hanging out in the cool water.

It looked rather burnt along with his gums and throat. Apparently dragons weren't so fire proof on the inside. She wished she had something to help sooth the burns. She couldn't see any plantain or aloe when they were exploring the island so that option was out.

If there was a bee hive somewhere she could treat him with honey. She needed to keep going with the fabric making so she went to give Hiccup her advice.

"Hiccup, I think you should treat those burns before you carry on. I don't want you making them any worse and if we don't treat them they might get infected."

He turned away from the water and began to write, _'Night fury saliva has natural healing properties. It should be fine.'_

"I don't care if it does, I still think you should have something so help sooth it, you're clearly in pain. Go and find some honey. You have better hearing and smell so you should be able to find them better than me. Bring back a hive when you find one. Make sure to kill the bees." She said, sounding like a concerned nagging parent.

_'Okay, okay. I'm going '_ He wrote before slouching off. He was in quite a bit of pain and the honey did sound nice. Didn't make it any more thrilling a thought to go hunting for a hive though. Who knew how far he'd have to go before he found one?

Ruffnut got back to work when he left. She began cutting and snapping some thick branches from nearby trees and tying them together into a square frame that she lodged into the ground. She then rung out and hung up the now smelly hide with the rope she made, stretching it right out on the frame. Her spear head wasn't too sharp so she used that to scrape off the excess meat and membrane from the inside at a ninety degree angle, before going round the other side and scraping off the fur.

When she finished, Hiccup had returned with a chard honey comb in his mouth and annoyed expression on his face. He was covered in honey and had twigs, leaves and dirt stuck to him. She couldn't help let out a giggle.

He looked hilarious.

He'd had to travel all the way to other side of the forest to find them hanging in large honeycombs off the face of a cliff. He'd shot some down only for it to land on him, covering him in sticky honey and having the bees swarm him. His hide kept him protected from their stings but it took a while to burn them to smoldering piles of fluff and make off with the prize. He drooped the comb letting out a huff and promptly dived into the pool. His mouth wasn't as sore any more after getting the honey in there, but he couldn't help wonder if it had been worth the effort.

After working all day on the hide and rope, Ruffnut was starving. She had yet to eat her venison, but now that Hiccup could make fire, she could cook herself some.

"Could you make a fire please?" She asked politely, since Hiccup wasn't in too good a mood. He gave a groan and lit a small pile of sticks on fire. Ruffnut then proceed to spear the meat with a stick and wedged it over the fire to cook.

While she waited, she opened up the deer head she had saved and scooped out the brains. She used the skull as a bowl as she added some water to it. She mashed up the brains and held the skull over the fire for a bit until it was warm and frothy. She then dug out a pit in the soil to use as a bucket, which she poured the mixture into. Being near the pool and stream, she didn't have to worry about it seeping into the ground too fast. She cut down the raw hide, getting rid of the unclean edges, and dropped it into the hole.

It would get a bit muddy but she didn't have anything else to put it in. After adding some more warm water, she massaged it thoroughly before leaving it to soak over night. Done with the days tasks and waiting for the venison to cook, she decided to cheer up Hiccup a bit. She walked over to him and started giving him a scratch. Although he was trying to ignore it at first since he was still in a bad mood over the burning of his mouth and the battle with the bees, he soon leaned into her touch and let out cooing and purring sounds. He rolled onto his back and unconsciously started to twitch a hind leg. He was very content once she stopped and went to eat her dinner. Stomach full, she curled into hiccup and they fell into a light sleep, worry on their minds about Toothless.

* * *

When the sun rose the next day, they got back to work. Ruffnut took the hide out of soak and began to wring it dry. She placed it onto a smooth horizontal branch and folded it twice. Then she rolled up each vertical end to the centre. She stuck another stick through the loop this had made and twisted it tightly, getting all the water out. She did this a few times, moving the loop around to evenly wring it. When she was sure she'd wrung it enough, she unfolded it and rehung it on the frame, making sure to stretch it out as much as she could. Then she took a smooth rock and rubbed it over the hide repeatedly to stretch and soften it. She tightened the ropes the more it stretched out, she wanted it nice and thin and flexible. She let out a sigh, this was going to take her all day. Hiccup had gone off fishing. Now that he could fly, he'd taken some tips from toothless how to do it and planned to try it out. She hoped he'd come back with at least one for each of them.

He came back mid afternoon with a fish in his paws. Although that clearly wasn't how much he'd actually caught when he started throwing some up to give to toothless. She briefly wondered when he'd learnt the reflex.

"Do you mind taking over Hiccup? She asked. "My arms are killing me and I've just re-tightened it so you only need to rub the rock on it for now."

He gave a nod but before getting to that, he drew some diagrams and instructions on the ground. It was for the rods that would act as the bones for the fins. Only they would actually be bones, given the materials they had.

"Thanks Hiccup, I'll get on that after lunch," she said before going to eat her raw fish. She didn't mind the taste of it so she didn't see the point in waiting for it to cook.

She watched Hiccup hold two stones in each front paw before rubbing them down the hide. It looked like he was playing with it like a cat, it was rather cute. From hiccups instructions, she had to cut the front leg bones into quarters and file them down into cylinders. Another hard and lengthy process giving she only had rocks to work with instead of a proper blacksmith grinder. Maybe hiccup could do it instead? He was more knowledgeable on the subject and he seemed to hold onto the stones okay. She'd just have to cut the pieces for him. Once she'd finished the fish she got right on that. It was rather tricky cutting into the bone with her now sharpened spearhead; she had just spent a while sanding it on a rock. She ended up splitting the bones a couple times, it was lucky they only needed six rods. She scraped out the marrow to eat later.

"Hiccup, could you do the filing at all? I'm better with fabric and you're blacksmith after all." He dropped the stones and slandered over to her. He attempted to take one of the bone sticks into his paws. It took a few tried but he managed to grip it awkwardly between his claws. He began filing them against the top of a hard rock, being careful not to use too much of his new found strength. Ruff went back to the hide, trying not to giggle at how strange it looked for a dragon to be grinding down a bone like a human.

* * *

The next day, the hide was nice and dry and stretched so it was ready for smoking. She took it down and stitched loosely into a tube shape. She then hung it over a smoking pit. she'd had Hiccup create a fire earlier for the process. She'd keep an eye on it to make sure it stayed smoking and not come out in flames again.

By noon, Hiccup had finished with the rods and they looked great. Considering he didn't have the dexterity of his human hands, he'd still done a good job and the bone rods looked finely crafted. He really was a great blacksmith.

"Those look great Hiccup," She praised and gave him a scratch. He gave a warble as a thank you and then trotted off. With nothing more for him to do, he decided to fly off to get some fish for the day.

Ruffnut took a well-needed bath and washed her clothes before she got to work making a thinner thread for the sewing she'd be doing soon, all the while keeping an eye on the hide.

She turned it inside out once the first side was done and took it down as it started to get dark. The hide was now waterproof and ready to be used as fabric.

Hiccup had had a better catch this time and gave ruff three fish before flying over to toothless. Apparently the water would be up to her waste now and she worried whether they'd be able to take off. It would most likely be up to her chest by tomorrow. She had to get the prosthetic done. Now all that was left was sowing it together and adding the bone rods. She cut the fabric into the shape required and placed the bone rods on top. She was amazed about how Hiccup had done them.

The ends of the rods had spheres and cup joints attached to the end, which would attach to another pole along the tail, while allowing movement of the rods. That pole had flattened ends with holes in for the ropes. She made sure they were in the correct places before laying over some more fabric and pinning them in place to the base fabric with smashed up shells she'd had hiccup collect. The second layer only covered the bones to make the fin as light and thin as possible. The main fabric would be the top half. She slid off the fabric to stitch later. She then attached the five rods into the pole where holes had been made. The cups had spikes on the end for easier insertion. She secured them with pine pitch. She'd collected the cedar sap earlier and had heated it with some charcoal to make the glue. She tied some thread around the joining to make them extra secure.

She decided to call it a day there seeing as it was becoming so dark it was hard to see. She'd stitch the fin in the morning.

* * *

It was finished. The fin folded smoothly and everything was secure. She'd tied some rope in the pole's holes and left a trail to tie around her foot for now. They didn't have time to make the saddle and peddles Hiccup had planned. They needed to get toothless out first. She'd also added more fabric to the pole and attached some string to either end as to attach it to his tail. The pole moved back and forth in the fabric sheath as to control the tension of the fin.

She gathered it up in her arms and Hiccup flew them off to Toothless. Hopefully they weren't too late and this fin would work. What worried her the most though was the darkening clouds and the whispers of thunder in the near distance.

* * *

Meanwhile on Stoic's ship.

They were coming back from another failed attempt at reaching the nest. He'd lost half his fleet. After setting off, they'd checked a few islands on the way but there wasn't any sign of the night furies or Ruffnut. If she'd fallen off she would have surely washed up on one of them.

They planned to spread their search a bit further before heading back to Berk, just in case. But if she had been taken to the nest, there wasn't anything more he could do. Why was it so hard to get there?

They'd tried time and time again, using different paths, sailing as slow as possible to avoid the sea stacks; but they could never make it. He looked up at the sky. Dark clouds were looming and thunder deafened the air. A storm was coming in, fast. The first flash of lightning let loose the rain.

"TAKE IN THE SAILS," He bellowed. The order was spread to the other ships and the men hurriedly started to untie the ropes and roll them up to the upper beams. The wind picked up, causing the waves to increase in size. Their little boats weren't made for storms.

In his hurry to set out for the nest, he'd forgotten to ask Gothi if it was safe to sail. Now the gods were striking them down for their carelessness.

Stoic looked to his right in time to see one of the ships capsize. They hadn't gotten the sails up fast enough when a gust of wind had hit them. Water poured into the boat, threatening to sink them. The sea had become a chaotic nightmare. The rain was so heavy, they couldn't see far in front of themselves. If they could, they would have seen the rocks ahead of them.

"TURN!" He shouted when he caught sight of them, but it was too late. The ship crashed into a low sea stack and broke into the ships hull. "ABBANDON SHIP." He cried and jumped over to a nearby boat. He only just made the jump, hanging onto the side of it. Others hadn't been as luckily and were swallowed into the dark frigid waters. The waves grew higher and their powerless ships were carried along for the ride. Before they knew it, they were quickly approaching an island.

Stoic's eyes widened when he saw it and all he heard after that was a loud crashing sound mixed in with his fellow Vikings' screams, as the ship hit the shores and he blacked out.

* * *

**AN- so how was that? I had to do a ton of research for this chapter. It was an interesting learning experience. I also hope I got the facts okay on Toothless' tail since I couldn't find much explanation on the mechanics. Just say if I should add some info.**

**Reviews.**

**Lizzy – glad you like It so much. :) you know you could always make an account and follow me so you'll get an email when I've posted the next chap. **

**Fireflame159 - Thanx. I don't like to keep my readers waiting too long. I always appreciate authors who can get chapters out quickly as well. Although not the ones who make ridiculously short, rushed chapters and haven't even tried to proofread. You know?**

**Concrit – I'm glad you're still enjoying it. I noticed that most Vikings on Berk don't have their arms covered so they are pretty good in the cold anyway by the looks of it. Hiccup did go to warm her some when she was getting a bit too cold but I see what you mean by the exposure. I'm just gonna pretend they have adapted to the cold partially as well as that guy who swims in ice water. Think he's in the Guinness book of records. And I'm glad I got the balance right with Hiccup's confession. :)**

**Guest -_Did you think about how hiccup is going to turn human. _**

**Yes, I have it planned. But it will take a while to get there. **

**Thanks to everyone else who reviewed. Hope you liked the chapter. Next will be up within 3 days. **


	13. Kill

**AN – Wow thanks so much for the reviews guys. I was literally dancing to 'I'm so excited by the pointer sisters' after reading them. Every review is like a happiness pill and it makes me feel great. Writing a fic has got be the best decision of my life. XD **

**Anyway, sorry about the late update. I had some bad writers block. Had to let it stew for a couple days to sort out how I wanted a few things to go. But here it is :)**

**I hope you enjoy.**

**Oh and also, I bought an art book yesterday for httyd2 when I was browsing forbidden planet with a friend. It's awesome, I highly recommend it. It has some nice pics of itchy armpit in there. The flooding I planned actually fit the pictures, how about that haha. There is also an adorable pic of a baby night fury in there. I can't stop looking at it's just so cute *squeal* _**

**Anyway, sorry about the late update. I had some bad writers block. Had to let it stew for a couple days to sort out how I wanted a few things to go. But here it is :)**

**I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

By the time Hiccup and Ruffnut were in the general area of the cavern, it was pouring down. It was hard to see much through the deluge in front of them causing them to squint and fly low in their search for it. The hailstones mixed in with it painfully hit against Hiccups wings.

They narrowly dodged a lightning bolt when they saw the cavern, illuminated from the light the strike had given off. They quickly sped over to the entrance. Hiccup dived down at an alarming speed to make sure Toothless was okay.

Toothless was standing up against a wall on his hind legs. Even in this position, it came up to the base of his neck. He was shivering badly and his eyes looked dazed. _"Toothless, we're here. You okay to fly?"_ Hiccup yelled worriedly.

He didn't know what they'd do if Toothless was too weak from the cold to get in the air.

"_Y-yeah,"_ He shivered, _"Just hurry and get the tail on before I pass out and drown."_

Hiccup hadn't learnt to hover yet so he kept flying in circles until he tossed Ruffnut in the water.

"Wah that's c-cold," She complained when she surfaced. She quickly swam to toothless. "I-I need to get to your t-tail. Can y-you hold it up?"

He gave nod and started swimming in the water with his stiff limbs, holding his tail at the surface. She got to work unfolding and attaching it.

Then she wrapped the string around her ankle and climbed onto his back. He gave a bit of a growl, still not too comfortable by the thought of a human riding him.

"Hey it's okay. I won't h-hurt you Toothless, I'm just t-trying to help. You know that." She comforted.

The rainfall was making the water rise surprisingly fast. Maybe it had something to do with the other caverns connected to this one. Ruff could only hope it didn't get any worse. Without any ground to take off from, toothless dived down, Ruffnut holding onto his neck tightly. He then quickly swam up and flapped hard.

Ruffnut quickly pulled open the fin with her leg and he became airborne. "It's working! She cried, until she pulled a bit too hard and they went crashing into the water. They tried again a few times with the same results.

Maintaining the right tension was difficult as she had to keep her balance at the same time. She also struggled to match his real tail fin movements. On the fourth try, they ended up crashing into Hiccup.

Now they were all in the freezing water. Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking sound. Before they knew it, a wall above them collapsed, making a wide hole that gushed water. The sheer pressure of it caused a whirlpool effect on the rising water.

"Damn it, we haven't got any more time to get used to the workings," She cursed. "Hiccup, get on Toothless and get back in the air. I'm gonna steer the fin by hand by holding onto the tail."

He gave a quick nod as he struggled to stay above the churning water. He forced his way through the strong current to Toothless and climbed on his back.

_"What are you doing!?"_ Cried Toothless, he'd been too concentrated on not drowning to translate Ruffnut's words.

_"I'm using you as land to lift off. Ruff is going to hold onto your tail and operate the fin directly by hand."_ He quickly said before leaping into the air.

Before Ruff could get to that however, they'd come around to the gushing water and it pushed them down deep under with painful force. Ruff looked around under the water, but human eyes weren't meant for seeing submerged in liquid.

It was all a chaotic blur. She didn't know how far down she'd been pushed but her ears and sinus hurt with the pressure. The depths were murky and dim but she could just make out a much darker silhouette coming towards her.

She hummed out into the water, hoping he'd hear her. Luckily he had and swam over to her awkwardly, dragons were meant in to be in the sky after all; they weren't very good swimmers.

Her lungs were burning when he grabbed her. He started to swim toward the surface of the spinning water as she crawled down to his tail. She latched her legs on tight and grasped the prosthetic in her hands. Toothless propelled himself from the whirlpool and ruff opened up the fin. Hiccup gave a relieved shriek, he was worried they wouldn't re-surface.

Ruffnut was coughing and gasping for breath as she desperately tried to focus on mirroring Toothless' tail. The two dragons beat their wings hard, trying to get out of the cavern as quickly as possible and into the open air. Although the situation was dire, Toothless couldn't help but feel elated.

He was flying!

After several days of being grounded he was finally flying. It felt good to feel the freedom of it, even if the Viking latching to his tail was rather uncomfortable. They finally breached the entrance but the sight was shocking.

Lightning rained down in ways the two Berkians had never seen. It hit in multiple places, spreading out like the branches of trees. The thunder roared louder than ever before, threatening to shatter their eardrums. The wind tore through the sky's almost as strong as a hurricane. The rain was painfully heavy and the hailstones were the size of hazelnuts.

It all made it extremely difficult to fly. They couldn't see anything past a few meters in the rain, except the bright lightning. They immediately dove down to take shelter, being careful not to be thrown off course by the weather.

They landed at their previous camping sight by the waterfall. It was quickly flooding, so Ruffnut gathered up her supplies including the honeycomb, rope, sinew and remaining fabric; before hoping onto Toothless' back.

They ran across the island, making their way up to higher ground. For some strangely timed reason, Ruffnut remembered the strange roots of the trees. They had all been projecting from the ground, perhaps it flooded like this quite often and that's how they had adapted.

If that was the case, the best place to go would be somewhere the trees didn't have roots like that. "Hey guys, keep going until the tree roots aren't coming up from the ground any more. I think it won't flood there." She shouted to the dragons.

Hiccup was surprised she'd figured something like that out before him, even though he'd not really paid much attention to the way the roots grew. So they kept running. Eventually they came to a rock pyre that stretched out a small distance.

The trees on the ground continued to contain the elevated roots, but at the top of the pyres, the trees looked more normal.

The water wouldn't reach there.

Looking up at the side of it appeared to be an opening, perhaps a cave or a small groove in the side. Hiccup flew up to check it out, struggling to balance against the winds and hail.

It was a shallow cave, he could see the back of it from where he was, but it was facing away from the wind and was dry inside.

_"We can take shelter here."_ He yelled down to toothless.

Toothless got Ruffnut's attention and pointed his head to his tail. She got the message, passed the supplies to Toothless for him to hold, then latched onto it again before he took off and they flew up to the small cave. Ruff shivered a bit and took off her over clothes to dry.

Toothless started washing himself to get the water off his scales. Hiccup soon did the same thing, just keeping to the modest parts. When Toothless was dry, he lit up the ground so they could warm up. Now that they had shelter and were safe, they all started to calm down.

Toothless, noticing Ruffnut wasn't licking herself dry decided to go and do it for her.

"Eww! Toothless stop! That's disgusting!" She protested as he covered her in saliva.

He was halted from his actions when hiccup pulled him away by the skin of his lower neck.

_"She can dry off by the fire, humans don't lick themselves clean."_ Hiccup stated.

_"Is that why you were so reluctant when I gave you a bath?"_ He asked in a peeved tone. What was with these two hatchlings about tongue baths?

Ruff sat down close to the smoldering ground and warmed her hands in front of it. Hiccup came over and led down beside her, with Toothless following suit.

Once they had warmed, they led down next to each other for warmth and comfort like siblings, before drifting off to sleep, exhausted from the ordeal.

They could only hope the storm would be over once they awoke.

* * *

His mind was hazy and deaf to the world. He couldn't see the world around him but he could hear and feel it. It was wet and cold, air blowing harshly against his damp and salty hair.

He could hear bird song, although he did not recognize any of the bird-calls. He felt hard poles beneath him and several ticklish paper-like objects brushing against him in the breeze.

Why wasn't he in his soft bed? Was he even on Berk? He carefully opened his eyes to the bright sunshine that held no warmth. As his vision came into focus, he realized...he was in a tree! How did that happen?

He briefly looked down and felt vertigo at how up he was. He definitely couldn't have climbed up here with his large size and weight.

His memories started coming back to him of the night before. They had been returning from the nest, but then there was a storm. He remembered the cries of his men and the chaotic panic that transpired.

He remembered the island he saw before blacking out. Was he on it now? Where were his men? Were they alive? He slowly got into an upright position, being careful not to fall out the tree. Looking down, he couldn't see the ground.

Just a flood of water several meters below him. Scattered remains of wooden ships had been caught in-between the roots and trunks of the trees. He saw some of his men dangling over them, hopefully alive. Looking around he saw he wasn't the only one to have ended up in the trees. One of the washed up Vikings let out a groan as they awoke.

"Oy! Can you hear me?!" yelled Stoick.

The Viking looked around confused for a moment before looking up. "What you doing up there chief?"

"I just woke up here. That wave was pretty high" He replied, "Can you see how deep the water is?"

"Hold on," the Viking said before taking a look down. The water was too murky to see the bottom so he slid into it.

He couldn't touch the bottom with his feet, so dived down a few meters before hitting the ground.

"It's about three meters deep chief," He reported. Three meters wasn't much, but he didn't have any other way of getting down.

He leapt quickly trying not to think about how little the water would break his fall. He felt jolts of pain through his legs when he landed, but luckily they were still intact.

He assessed the damage from below. "Wake up the others if they're still alive. We need to repair the ships before the debris sinks and rots."

"Yes chief," Replied the Viking and proceeded to shake his peers awake. While looking around at this strange new island, Stoick noticed something interesting about the bark on the trees. It was damp up past the water line by almost a meter.

Had the water drained some after the storm? He wasn't sure how quickly it drained but hopefully they'd be able to make a fire by nightfall at least.

The water was freezing and if his men weren't already dead from the shipwreck, they would end up dying of hypothermia.

He heard splashes as others awoke and jumped down from the trees.

"Where are we chief?" Asked one of the Vikings. "I've never seen this island before."

"I don't know. I've never seen it either." He replied as he looked around and above. Apart from the flood, they were surrounded by tall tress with orange foliage. The flora and wildlife calls weren't familiar at all.

Looking at the ships, he could see they were damaged beyond repair. They had been reduced to drift wood. Their only hope of getting off this island would be to salvage what they could from the wreckage and harvest wood from suitable trees to rebuild their ships.

It would take several days. Their food and water supplies had gone with the ships so they'd need to hunt and forage for some food.

He cupped some water in his hands and had a taste. It was salty. They'd have to find a fresh water source as well. He gave a shiver and looked around for anywhere to take shelter from the engulfed land and cold.

Nothing.

He'd have to send out a few search parties for the necessities of their survival.

The Viking that had been waking the others came back with a small group of ten including his brother. He gave a relieved sigh at the sight of him. But still, only ten of his men were left. He'd left Berk with fifty men.

After the nest he'd had thirty-two.

The storm had claimed twenty-two of his men. He wondered if any of the remaining men and himself would even survive this situation.

Would they ever see Berk again? No, he couldn't think like that, he had to remain positive. He was the chief, he had to keep his men's hopes high and give out the appropriate commands for their survival. They looked up to him for support. What good was a support that gave way to despair so easily?

"Alright, we'll split into teams of two. Team one will go hunt and forage for some food. Team two will look for shelter. Team three will find a fresh water source. Team four will gather the debris from our wrecked ships. Team five will gather wood from hard wooded trees. Mark trees on your way to help find your way back. I'll be in the hunting team. Three people will be in the wood gathering team." He ordered confidently.

He couldn't let his fear and uncertainty show.

"Aye," The Vikings shouted back with vigor, fueled with motivation from their chief's undaunted attitude to the hopeless situation. They decided who would be in each team and split up. Luckily, they still had some good weapons with them. The hunting and gathering parties took those. The others took smaller weapons for protection, like daggers.

* * *

Toothless woke up to the smell of damp musky air.

The storm had stopped and he heard the wildlife come to life with the dawn. The burning coals had died down so he relit them from his position. He lifted his wing to see the hatchlings cuddled together beside him. He gave a snide grin as he went to give hiccup a lick across the face. He yelped awake at the sudden moisture and after quickly looking around, he settles on toothless and gave an unimpressed look.

_"What did you do that for?!"_ He cried.

Toothless ended up laughing, waking Ruffnut, "Huh, what? Morning already?" she yawned.

Toothless leaned down and gave her a slobbery lick as well.

"Eww, Toothless! What did I say about licking me? It's gross!" She yelled back in a playful tone as she leapt on him and licked him back.

Toothless was applauded at the action and scampered off to the back of the cave and gave a growl, proceeding to wash himself off like a cat. Hiccup and Ruffnut ended up rolling in laughter at his reaction.

_"Yeah, yeah. Very funny."_ He remarked at them. "Come on, let's get out of this cave and see what condition the islands in. We need to get back to work if we're to get out of here. We also need to find some food."

_"Y-yeah okay."_ Giggled Hiccup, trying to get over his amusement.

They approached the edge of the cave and looked down to see the layer of water surrounding them. Hiccup glided down to see how deep it was. It only came up to the tops of his small legs making it as high as Ruffnut's knees. Toothless followed after him, steadily gliding with Ruffnut on his back. She was using the string on the fin for now, being careful not to pull it too much.

_"Right, you and I shall hunt some deer while Ruff does whatever she wants for now."_ Said Toothless.

_"Okay." _Hiccup agreed. He went up to a tree and started carving out some runes with his claws.

She read them and gave a nod, "Okay, I'll go and look for some wood suitable for a bow then. It would be good to have a long ranged weapon out here. I'll return here by noon."

Hiccup gave a nod and set off with toothless to catch their meal. They'd bring them back for skinning since they needed more fabric for a saddle.

* * *

_"I expect the deer will be in the upper levels like us to stay out of the deep water."_ Explained Toothless. _"Keep vigilant with your ears and nose. Don't rely on your eyes until the actual hunt."_

_"I have caught one already you know."_

_"Sure, but how smoothly did that go for you?"_ He grinned.

_"Uh, point taken. It noticed me too soon and I had to chase it down, damaging its leg in the process. Not to mention the sloppy killing when I ripped into it's neck."_

_"I'll teach you how to hunt more effectively. Imagine how much pain a suffering that deer would have gone through had it gotten away after the leg injury."_ He stated, making Hiccup look down in guilt.

_"It's best to make a nice clean and quick kill. Night furies are natural born predators that rely on sneaking into close range before we strike. We like to stay silent and undetected until the last moment when it's too late for them to bolt. You leap straight for the neck and pierce into the windpipe. Tearing into the jugular is messy and spreads blood everywhere; attracting scavengers. You don't want to fight others for your kill."_

Hiccup listened to his advice attentively. He didn't want to let him down.

After a while, Toothless stilled. Hiccup froze with him and focused his senses to search what had grabbed Toothless' attention.

He smelt the musk of a deer and the sound of bark being stripped off a tree. They waited for it to move a bit so they could listen to its leg movements in the water; learn its direction.

They crept to the right a bit to be down wind.

_"Stay low, and don't step out of the water. Just glide with the flow to restrict the sound. Keep your breathing and heart rate under control. Keep a constant eye on its gaze and continue to listen out for any other animals nearby that may alert it."_ He whispered.

Hiccup followed his lead, moving as smoothly as he could with the water. They hid behind tree after tree on their gradual way up to the deer. From what he could see, it was a young buck. With the grass submerged, it was feeding off the bark of a tree. With each strip it took, it looked around and swung it's ears back and forth. It was on high alert.

_"Stay here and watch. I'll kill this one and you'll kill the next one we find. I want you to learn the technique."_ Hiccup gave a nod and stayed where he was, making sure the deer didn't catch sight of him. Toothless was silent. He blended well with the dark murky water and the way in which he moved was so subtle it didn't look like he was moving at all.

When he was within two meters he froze and closed his eyes. The deer gave a brief glance at him before going back to feeding. He looked like a log. As soon as the deer went for another bite and let it's guard momentarily down, toothless leapt.

He grabbed the deer's throat just as it started to back up from the sudden noise and appearance of the dragon. It gave a shriek of terror as he bit into its windpipe and held on until it suffocated, going limp in his jaws.

Toothless pranced over to hiccup proudly with his kill. _"That was amazing, it didn't even notice you when it looked at you! And the kill is so clean, theirs barely any blood staining the fur."_ Toothless dropped the buck to give his reply.

_"That's why I'm teaching you this method. It's far more efficient and also keeps the skin in good condition for Ruffnut to work with. Now I'm gonna go hide this at out base. Start the hunt without me. I'll find you once it's hidden. Maybe you will already have your kill done when I get back"_ He grinned before picking the buck back up and ran off to their base.

Hiccup watched him disappear and got to work. Eventually he heard some splashing water. He froze and sniffed the air. There was a stag up a head! Could he take on such a large prey?

He crept over to a better position as to be hidden. He wasn't completely downwind, more to the right of it. But the position was better where he was. The deer was facing the directly downwind area, keeping an eye out for sneaky predators.

He moved in slowly, trying to slow down his pounding heart. The closer he got, the stronger the smell of the delicious deer became, exciting him. But he forced himself to focus on remaining silent.

He was within three meters when something unexpected happened.

The stag suddenly gave out a cry and reared up, startling Hiccup to giving away his position. He stumbled backwards as to stay out of the stag's way. As it turned around he caught sight of an arrow!

Humans!

Panic rushed through him, humans were on the island. But they may not have seen him yet, he had to run! But luck wasn't on his sight.

His heart plummeted when he heard the shouts, "DRAGON"

He stared at where the shouts had come from and to his horror, there were three Vikings. What was worse is that standing among them was his father. What was he doing here?

"NIGHT FURY!" He heard his dad shout. He scrambled to his feet and went to bolt in the opposite direction when an arrow hit him in the base of his tail. Before he knew it, someone was one him. Then another jumped on him! He was so dead.

* * *

Stoick and his men had come across a stag.

It was a great find.

They stayed downwind to the left of it, moving into medium range. He signaled for one of his team members to aim his bow and arrow at it. When they had a clear shot, they fired. It gave a shriek. He'd missed its vital point, he'd have to quickly shoot it again or they'd be chasing it down. But before he could fire the second one, he spotted something unexpected. They hadn't been the only ones hunting the stag. He alerted Stoick to the dragon. Stoick recognized it to be a Night Fury. Whether it was the same one that had been on their island they couldn't be sure.

Stoick and the other Viking rushed up to it while he fired an arrow as it tried to get away.

Stoick held the night fury down, holding his head tightly under the water. He punched it a few times until it went limb. It wasn't dead yet, just unconscious. He checked it over and noticed the scar n it's left hind leg. It was the one he'd given it. This was indeed the same night fury that had been on their island. That meant the other night fury, and maybe Ruffnut, was here too.

"You two go after that stag, I'll take the dragon back so I can properly contain it."

"Don't you want to kill it?" Asked one of the men.

"Not yet. I want it to lure the older one out so I can make it suffer for what it did to my son." He replied, anger and anguish in his voice.

"Yes chief," they both said before running off in the direction the stag went.

* * *

Toothless was making his way back to Hiccup after dropping off the stag in a tree at base.

He hadn't heard any other dragons on the island so he figured it was a safe spot. He followed Hiccup's scent in the air until he came to an area that didn't smell right. He gave a low growl when he smelt humans. He could smell hiccup and a male deer had been there not too long ago but the scent of three male humans were also mixed into the air.

Two of which then branched off in the direction the deer scent went and one that had headed off with Hiccup. He listened closely for any humans nearby before he trotted along the scent trail to Hiccup. He didn't know what humans were doing here, he was sure he couldn't smell even a trace of them before he'd been trapped in the cavern.

But that didn't matter now, they had Hiccup. He hoped it wasn't too late and he was still alive. He stilled when he began to hear voices. He crept over, remaining hidden. There were several Vikings with an unconscious hiccup. Their noise made him unable to focus on whether Hiccup was still breathing.

He assessed the situation. From the looks of it, the Vikings were shipwrecked. They were tapped here. Only one of them had a sizeable weapon. Most of them were injured and the water was very deep here so they couldn't move about as freely as usual. He'd normally have the advantage of his fire blasts, but his head was wet from crouching in the flooding. The deep water gave him a new advantage though. He could easily dive under them and attack them that way, stating with the strongest and most threatening.

So that is what he did. He dove down and swam over to them, his dark scales blending in with the murky waters.

Without them even noticing his arrival, he clamped his jaws onto the leg of the biggest armed Viking. He heard a yell from above before he dragged them under, the taste of vial human blood in his mouth. He dragged them away from the other Vikings so they could not land a blind hit on him before he pulled himself over the large Vikings body, going for the jugular. But this Viking was a seasoned warrior and grabbed him around the chest. He squeezed Toothless extremely hard before kicking himself to the surface, night fury still in his clutches.

Toothless shrieked out in pain, the force of the man's embrace cracked his ribs and threatened to break his wings. He desperately tried to claw at him with his hind legs and bite at his neck but it only made the grip tighter.

His shrikes ended up waking hiccup, who snapped out of any fogginess in his mind as his survival instincts kicked in. the Vikings hadn't had the chance to tie him up yet and he leapt into the air. He hurtled towards Stoick and bit hard into his arm without hesitation, tearing left and right like a savage dog. Others tried coming to their chief's aid, waddling through the water.

Stoick swung Hiccup off into the deep water, unintentionally giving Toothless the chance to wiggle free and claw a gash in his throat.

Hiccup and toothless quickly started to swim and flap away from the Vikings, but the water slowed them greatly. The other Vikings pounced on them, grabbing at their vulnerable wings. Toothless swung around to bite one of them only to get a punch to the head.

Stoick got back up despite his deep wounds and threw his axe at Toothless, cutting into his chest. Hiccup gave a shocked screech at the sight of the axe lodged in his friend.

Toothless pulled out the axe and cried out to hiccup, _"Dive! They can't see and locate us as well!"_

They both dived down into the murky depths and desperately swam away from the Vikings, pulling against the ground to propulsion themselves. Hiccup brushed against someone's leg, causing them to stab at him with their dagger. He let out a cry when it hit its mark in the back of his right shoulder.

He scratched the person's leg as hard as he could, slicing into their soft flesh. They gave a cry and fell over. Hiccup, fueled on survival instincts went straight for the man's throat and tore away at it. Blood gushed out and spread out over the surface as he made his getaway.

Luckily, that was the last obstacle as they swam to safety. They didn't stop moving until they were sure they were far enough away and the water was shallow enough to run in.

Their injuries started to catch up to them as the adrenaline wore off. Toothless collapsed with an agonized grown. His chest was killing him, from both the crushing hug and the axe wound.

Hiccups head pounded from being knocked out so harshly, and his shoulder stung with each step. The dagger was still embedded in the muscle.

_"We have to keep moving," Hiccup panted._

_"I know,"_ Toothless groaned, _"but it hurts too much to move. My body won't listen to me any more."_

_"We don't have time for rest, they could be coming after us as we speak. Come on, get up. You can rest when we are safe."_

Toothless gave a growl, _"I can't damn it. I'm too injured. Just leave without me!" _

_"No! I won't leave you to be slaughtered. I'm getting you to safety, even if I have to drag you."_

_"I'll only slow you down, save yourself!"_

But Hiccup wouldn't listen, he gripped Toothless' neck in his jaws and tried to drag him, pain shooting up his shoulder. But toothless was too heavy for him, even with the water lifting some of the gravity effects. He looked around panicked.

_"I'm not leaving you damn it,"_ He cried as tears began to fall down his face.

If they couldn't run they'd have to hide. He looked for somewhere, anywhere.

He spotted that one of the trees with the protruding roots had a large gap between some of them. Toothless should just about fit.

_"Come on Toothless, just push yourself a bit more and get under that tree. If we can't run, we can at least hide."_

Toothless panted and groaned as he tried to get up. Hiccup supported and pushed him towards to the hiding area. Toothless squeezed inside and Hiccup went in right after. They ducked under the water and closed their eyes to mere slits so they could check what was going on outside while making themselves look like rocks.

* * *

Stoick was furious. He'd been badly injured by both the Night Furies. He had been right about the younger one luring out the larger one, but it was far quicker than he'd have liked. They hadn't even tied up the younger one yet.

Blood was everywhere.

It made the water even darker and the sunlight showed the highlights of red within the depths. One of his men was floating on the surface, throat ripped out. On closer inspection he realised it was his brother, Spitelout. He gathered his limp body in his arms and hugged him close. The night furies had now killed two of his own family. It was unforgivable.

He wouldn't let them get away with the murder of his people ever again. Despite his injuries and his men pleading to stay behind and rest, he refused.

He'd done that the last time two times they had injured him and they ended up killing someone and getting away with it.

No, this time he'd chase them down straight way himself.

He wiped the tears that had started to form and took the five men that were with him to set off after the blood trail. While jogging along, Stoick was lost in his thoughts. Why hadn't they flown away? He knew that the younger one didn't seem able to fly before but he clearly saw it get into the air before it bit him.

So it could fly now.

But then it seemed as though the older one was now the grounded one. Had it been injured? He didn't get a good look at it, but he wondered whether Ruffnut had something to do with it. Where was she now? Had they killed her? Did they do it on this island? Maybe they could at least recover her body for a proper funeral.

The Vikings stopped when the blood trail seemed to end. But under closer inspection, it flowed under a tree where the blood became more pronounced. Stoick looked in the space under the tree. He couldn't see anything but some dark driftwood and rocks. But there was blood filling this cramp hollow. He asked for a stick and began jabbing inside. He couldn't quite reach with his arms alone and he wouldn't send one of his leaner men in there just in case the night furies really were hiding in there.

He could feel some mass in there but from the lack of movement and sound it was most likely just driftwood and rocks after all. That's what he thought, until he heard a yelp and a rock moved revealing frills that belonged to a night fury. He quickly pulled back as a small figure leapt for him.

* * *

Hiccup and toothless had been terrified. They'd been found. Hiccup had forgotten about how much they were both actually bleeding from their wounds and it had given them away. They'd bared with the poking from his dad the best they could but, just when his dad was about to give up, the stick jabbed against the dagger; tearing it out of his shoulder.

_"Don't move Toothless,"_ He cried when he'd given himself away from the pain. _"They haven't discovered you yet and I can fly away. I'll lure them away from you."_

Toothless wanted to protest, but if he did, he'd give himself away. He didn't want Hiccup to be the decoy but there wasn't anything else they could do. He couldn't fly and even running wasn't an option in his condition. So he just stayed still and silent as he watched hiccup dash out the opening to be chased by the Vikings.

Hiccup dodged a punch as he exited. He leapt up and attempted to fly only for the pain in his shoulder to interfere with the movement of his right wing. He came tumbling to the ground.

He immediately got back to his feet and ran as all the Vikings chased after him. He was glad none stayed behind to check if he'd not been the only one in there.

The more he ran through the restricting water, the more his shoulder hurt. It was bleeding profusely and it made him feel woozy from the blood loss. He knew he couldn't hide. Not with the blood making a trail.

He also couldn't fight them. He didn't have too much combat experience and was just a small dragon against six burly Vikings experienced in dragon killing. He had to outwit them instead.

They were gaining on him fast; the injury was making him limb and run slower. He attempted to get of the ground even if just to propulsion himself further, He still couldn't fly with the pain but it at least kept him out of their clutches.

He knew exactly where to head. He'd use nature against them. He was running for the beehives.

It took a while to get there and Hiccup was purely running on adrenaline. His breathing was ragged as his heart pumped painfully fast in his chest. His legs felt like jelly, threatening to collapse any second. But the Vikings were still on him. They looked slightly winded but were clearly in far better shape. Just because they were big didn't mean they were unfit.

Finally he saw the hives hanging above him on a rock pyre. He'd made sure to keep his head dry during the run so he'd be able to fire the shot. He ran further along the side of the rock until the Vikings were under the hives. Then he turned around and shot up. The Vikings slowed at his sudden action, not understanding why he'd turned and fired now and not earlier. Why had he fired up? Was on their minds as they took a glance. Horror washed over them when they saw the yellow object hurtling towards them. They tried to scatter a fraction too late as the honeycomb hit them with painful force. A couple had been knocked out by the blow.

Hiccup watched as the remaining four got up rather dazed, covered in honey, only to be swarmed in bees. With one final look at his furious father as he fought off the bees' stings, he ran.

He didn't stop until he'd reached the opening of a cavern and settled down deep inside it. He was exhausted, but he needed to remain alert. He was still leaving a blood trail and needed to know when to run again. He needed to get the blood to stop or he wouldn't get a chance to rest.

He licked at it, hoping his saliva would heal it.

But it didn't.

Saliva clearly wasn't as immediate as he thought. He didn't have anything to wrap it with to apply pressure so the only other option would be cauterization.

It would hurt but he had to do it. He turned his head towards the wound and blew his fire. He screeched in pain and licked the burning wound. He hadn't done it for long enough and it was still bleeding. He went to do it again, trying his best to ignore the immense pain the best he could until he was sure the wound was sealed. When he stopped he cried and wailed in pain. The wound was searing hot and felt like it was eating into the rest of his flesh. He got up and limped deeper into the cavern, looking for a pool. The cavern he'd entered was above the flood but he also couldn't risk exiting it in case they were on his trail and saw him. He was no longer leaving a trail of blood, which was good; they wouldn't be able to track him, but he had a severe injury that he needed to cool and treat as soon as possible. If the Vikings didn't kill him the wound would.

He eventually found one and lowered himself into it, breathing a sigh of relief at the cool feeling.

He'd stay for a short while before looking for a good hiding place.

He hoped toothless was doing okay and had dealt with his wounds. He was also worried about Ruffnut. What if the Vikings found her too? He doubted she'd be harmed if she kept her mouth shut about her relationship with him and toothless, but he still couldn't help worrying. If they took her back with them, toothless wouldn't be able to fly off the island. They'd have to rescue her, which meant a possible confrontation.

He hoped it didn't come down to that. He and Toothless weren't in any condition for another fight so soon.

* * *

**AN- so what did you think? I'm debating whether Stoick should find out about Hiccup or not. Would like to hear your suggestions.  
**

_**Reviews**_

**concrit – thx for the lengthy review. I'm not going to have that happen I'm afraid since then it would seem like I'm copying the ending of chap 15 of I hear him scream. God I can't wait until they update after that cliffhanger. Why must it always be a 2-3month wait. I know they are a pre-med student but still, waiting gah. **

**And I'm glad my research into tanning and that paid off. :) **

**and yes hiccup will turn human later because I mean, there are advantages to being human too. And for Ruffcup to happen he has to be human. **

**Guest who's dog passed – I hope you're holding up okay. Did you have a funeral for her at all? **

**MoonlightAngel131 ****– glad you took the advice, thank for the faves and follows. :) ****I'll**** keep an eye out for any stories you write. **

**Mermaidhorse**** – ****glad you are enjoying it. :D**

**Ice Maiden Olivier ****– thank you. Can't believe I've gone from sucky beginner to talented writer in two weeks haha. Makes me wonder if I can become a really good writer at this rate of progression. If that happens I may even write my own book. **

**Thank you everyone else who reviewed. For any questions I didn't answer for the last chap, they've been answered already in previous chapters, just go take a look through the author notes. ;)**


	14. Father and Son

**AN- Here's Chapter 14, I hope you enjoy it :)**

**Thank you everyone who gave their opinions on whether Stoick should find out or not, you'll see what I decided on below. **

**Thanks again to my beta, GodofGreed. **

* * *

**chapter 14**

It was noon and Ruffnut had returned to their base. She thought Hiccup and Toothless would be done by now, but they weren't back.

Looking around she saw the buck in a tree. Figuring they'd be back soon she sat on a rock and got to whittling down the long branch she had found. She'd skin the buck if she could get to it, but a dead dear was heavy and it would be difficult to remove it by herself.

After half an hour, they still weren't back. She started to worry something had happened, so she put down the roughly carved branch and headed in the direction the two had first headed off.

The flooding had reduced by half, but the ground had become muddy and difficult to walk in. her boots kept on catching in the sludge. Because of this, she was looking down most of the time to keep her footing. It was an hour later that she discovered the red hue in the water. She dipped her hand into to discover it was blood!

She quickly scanned for the source, hoping it was just deer blood. It led to the base of a tree, which she promptly knelt down to look inside.

It was dark, but after adjusting her eyes a bit she saw the unmistakable shape of night fury frills. She looked closer to see it was Toothless. He was led down, unconscious. Fearing the worst, she crawled into the space and started shaking him awake. He was still warm which was good but he wouldn't wake. Not until she nicked her knee on his chest wound that is.

His eyes snapped open in slits and struck out in panic, biting deep into her arm. She let out a cry of pain before the dragon returned to his senses and let go.

"Hey, it's okay. It's only me." She soothes as he whined and looked around with worried eyes.

"What happened? Are you all right? Where's Hiccup?"

At the mention of Hiccup, Toothless got more frantic and tried to get up before collapsing in pain.

"Whoa, easy there. There's a lot of blood, where are you injured?" She asked as she searched his visible body for wounds.

He sat up slightly and showed her his chest. Her eyes widened. It was deep and still bleeding! What scared her the most though was it didn't look like it had been done with the teeth, claws or horns of an animal. It was the distinct shape of an axe wound. Growing up in a Viking village made the indentation all too familiar to her. It meant humans were on the island. Hiccup's disappearance could only mean they'd gone after him.

"Come on lets get you out of here and treat that wound. Then we'll look for Hiccup."

Toothless groaned as he forced himself to crawl out of the space. His ribs ached and although they didn't feel broken, he was sure they were cracked.

Ruffnut tried helping him the best she could by pulling him forwards by the neck. When he was out, she took off her jacket to stop the bleeding. She rolled it up a bit before pressing it into the wound, which Toothless gave a screech at.

He grinded his teeth to stop himself from biting her. Then she took off her leggings and wrapped them around his neck and under his arm to hold the fabric in place.

"It'll do for now, but don't exert yourself, you don't look too good. I think you've lost too much blood. "She told him worriedly.

Toothless was shaking on his legs and his eyes looked a bit glassy. She'd prefer him to go back to base to rest, but he was the only one who could sniff out Hiccup. He could be anywhere and if she looked on her own she might not find him until it was too late.

She wrapped her arm in her shredded arm coverings after toothless gave it a lick, before they then set off.

* * *

Stoick and his men were resting outside a cavern. The blood trail led inside but he'd been convinced to rest and treat his wounds before they confronted the young Night Fury. He hoped this opening was the only way in and out of it. A shrill cry from inside assured him it was still relatively near and hopefully trapped.

* * *

Ruffnut and Toothless had been slowly making their way along the scent trail. Ruffnut had to keep supporting Toothless since he was becoming weaker and weaker.

It was an hour before she caught site of some broken beehives. They were smashed on the ground with footprints of honey leading the rest of the way. The dead, smashed up bees along the rocky walls and floor indicated it had fallen around the time the Vikings had come through. She wondered if Hiccup had something to do with it.

They followed the footprints to a hill that led to a cavern. Outside the cavern however were the Vikings. To Ruff's horror, they weren't just any Vikings, and more importantly, they were Berk Vikings. The chief was with them and he looked badly hurt.

"Stay here Toothless, I'll go confront them, try to lure them away. They shouldn't attack a fellow Viking and you need to rest anyway. You wouldn't last in another fight in your condition." She whispered.

Toothless gave a hesitant nod, crooning worriedly.

"Don't worry. If I manage to lure them away, go into the cavern and find Hiccup. Make sure he's okay, then head back to base." She soothed, before creeping over. She didn't want them to notice her until she was away from Toothless.

* * *

"Chief!" She yelled in fake relief.

Stoick turned his head to the misplaced feminine voice and couldn't believe his eyes. Ruffnut was just standing there, safe. He got up and walked towards her.

"Ruffnut! Are you okay? Are you hurt? How did you get away?" He questioned.

"I-I'm fine, just a bite. The older one was unconscious when we crash landed here and the little one wasn't too hard to fight off and run away from." She partially lied.

"I'm glad you're safe. Where are you bitten?" He asked worriedly.

He hadn't expected her to turn up alive and was relieved. Her parents and Tuffnut would be so happy when they returned with her. At least it was some good new out of this disastrous trip.

She held up her arm, the wrapping soaked in blood. Hopefully he wouldn't question why it was so fresh.

Luckily he didn't. He'd gone and assumed that was just the fabric's color since it was so badly stained. Her other wrapping had gone red too due to all the bloody water.

"I'm starving. Do you have anything to eat?" she asked, hoping they'd give up their search and take her back to their base. But she already expected that it wasn't a good enough excuse, sure enough they refused to leave.

"We can give you some food later. Some of my men are hunting a stag. Right now we've cornered the younger Night Fury. We can't let this chance pass us."

It dawned on her that no matter what she said at this point, they wouldn't give up. Vikings were stubborn and the chief was beyond determined to kill Hiccup for killing...Hiccup. Maybe she should tell him. But then he may not believe her. She'd also have to explain how she knows which would cause her previous explanation to fall apart. Not to mention she'd been helping the enemy.

She was a traitor.

She had to stay on their good side. For now all she could do was go along with them and find away to let Hiccup escape.

"I'll go with you," She said in a determined voice.

"Not to be rude lass, but you haven't gone through dragon training yet and you don't have a weapon. It would be better if you waited out here." Replied Stoick.

"I got away before didn't I? And this ones only young, I can take it."

Stoick had a think for a minute before giving a sigh and letting her join them.

"Just stay behind us, okay?"

"Yes, chief."

They followed the trail for a short while before it stopped. There was a small puddle of blood at the end of it.

"Damn, while we were resting it had the time to lick its wounds." scorned Stoick.

Since the cavern only went in one clear direction so far though, it was clear which way it had gone. So they pressed on, keeping a cautious eye out for an ambush.

* * *

Hiccup was scared.

The cavern had come to a dead end of ice and he didn't have a way of escape. He heard them finally come into the cave and looked around quickly for somewhere, anywhere to hide. Several meters from the block there was a high up ridge that ate into the wall. It didn't look too deep but it would do for now. Hopefully they would pass him and he could make a run for it.

He'd been licking at his shoulder wound for a while and the pain had lessened. He flapped up clumsily to the ridge, panting in pain when he made it. He curled up into a tight ball against the inlay. He wished the walls where darker. The white and light blue tones of the ice only made him stand out more. He could only hope they didn't look up.

He heard them coming closer and he gave a small whimper, trying to mold himself even further into the wall even though it was impossible to get any closer.

"Che, dead end." he heard his dad say. He took a glance to see him looking around, wondering where he could have gone. "He didn't pass us so he has to be somewhere, look around."

"There!" He heard a Viking cry. They'd spotted him. It was too late to run. Looking at the Vikings he was shocked to see Ruffnut behind them. So they had found her. This day had to be the worst of his life so far.

The gods still hated him after all.

One of them threw a dagger towards him causing him to shriek and jump down from the ridge. He tried to glide far enough away from them to get a running start but his shoulder tingled with agonizing pain and he went plummeting down.

_"Leave me alone!"_ he cried as one of them tried to stab him. He dodged between the Vikings, trying to get away.

* * *

Ruffnut was panicking, she had to do something or he'd be killed. She saw him fire a badly aimed shot that hit the wall before he dodged a swing from his father.

"DIE!" Stoick cried, desperately swinging his axe back and forth, blinded with rage.

Hiccup almost made it out of the swarm before another Viking got in front of him, ready to stab him through the chest.

Hiccup was moving forward too fast on the slippery ice, he wouldn't be able to dodge this one. Everything seemed to move in slow motion and she raced towards him.

"HICCUP!" She screamed before jumping in front of him and getting slashed deeply in the side of her abdomen.

Everyone froze.

She'd just protected the Night fury.

Stoick stared in shock.

"Hiccup?" He muttered out.

He stormed over to her before Hiccup took a guard stance and growled threateningly in front of her.

He paused before a scowl marred his featured. "What did you mean by that! And why did you protect it?!" He shouted. "Don't tell me you named it after my dead son! How could you be so disrespectful and traitorous."

Ruffnut was quivering, the pain hadn't hit her yet as she stared at her chief in fear. She'd mucked up. She'd been so used to talking to Hiccup by name she'd gone and blurted it out.

"I-I" she stammered.

"ANSWER ME!" He boomed.

"I-I, didn't name him after Hiccup. He is Hiccup!" she whimpered.

"What in Thor's name does that mean? My son is dead! these beasts have brainwashed you into believing such nonsense."

"N-no it's the truth. It was witchcraft."

"Witchcraft?!"

"He told me that a witch found him in the woods and cursed him. I didn't believe witchcraft existed before then, but he proved himself to me. He was acting strange for a dragon, he didn't know how to control his wings and tail and he ate raw fish like he'd never had it before. When I questioned him about it he wrote that he was Hiccup and he said about the teasing he'd gone through in Berk. If it wasn't for him, the older one would have killed me." she tried to reason.

"We know nothing about Night furies. For all we know they've learnt to write like us and can get inside your head. He's tricked you."

"No he hasn't. It really is Hiccup! "

Stoick didn't know what to think. He knew witchcraft existed due to the village healer they once had. But to have the power to turn a human into a dragon, that was beyond comprehension.

"Why would they go to the effort of keeping me alive?" She questioned. "What would be the gain in that? I'm their enemy that could kill them as they sleep. So why? Explain that."

Stoick didn't have an answer. She was right; it didn't make sense.

"Even if it was possible for a human to be turned into a Night fury, that can't be Hiccup," He bellowed. "That dragon killed my brother!"

Hiccup froze in shock. His uncle was dead, by his hand? When had that happened? He briefly recalled the blood in his mouth as he tore into flesh.

He felt horrified when he remembered it had been the neck of a Viking. He hadn't even realized what he'd done until now. And that Viking was his uncle?!

His head shook side to side as he back peddled in shock, letting out small warbles and whines. Tears pricked his eyes at the realization. He'd said he wouldn't kill a Viking. Yet he'd gone and killed a member of his family. He felt sick.

Stoick stared at the Night fury as it reacted to the news he'd just said. Was it getting upset? Tears were coming out of its eyes. He'd never seen a dragon cry and didn't even realize they could. It then threw up some fish and sobbed on the ground, completely defenseless.

He saw Ruffnut go up to him, keeping her eye on them in case they attacked.

"Hiccup? Come on it's okay, I'm sure you didn't mean to." He heard her sooth.

Stoick started to wonder if what Ruffnut was saying was the truth after all. Was this Night Fury really Hiccup? Had he really killed his uncle unintentionally?

"What was the name of this witch." He asked.

Ruffnut looked up, she was finally getting through to him.

"I don't know, he didn't say." She replied before turning to Hiccup.

"Come on Hiccup, get up. Write what happened. Do you know what the witches name is?"

Hiccup glanced up trying to snuff out the tears. What was he doing? He couldn't break down here.

He was surrounded by Vikings. He wasn't too worried about his life any more. He deserved to die for what he'd done. But Ruffnut was being seen as a traitor, maybe even an outcast. He didn't want her to die, not because of him.

He pushed out a paw and started writing upside down into the ice. It wasn't too easy to see but Stoick could just make it out.

_'I'm sorry dad; I didn't mean to kill uncle Spitelout. The witch who cursed me was called Circe. She said she wanted revenge against you. She's dead now though. The only way to my knowledge to turn back would be to kill me. I don't mind dying for what I've done, just don't hurt Ruffnut.'_

The Night Fury really could write, and in perfect Norse. Stoick re-read it a few times.

Circe?

The healer's daughter he realized. She'd fled the village soon after he'd sentenced her mother to death, swearing revenge. He'd sent out search parties to look for her and calm her down, but he never found a trace of her. She'd only been ten when she left so he figured she'd died.

Such a young girl shouldn't have been able to survive on her own out in the dangerous world. He'd been careless and stupid. Now his son was paying for his crimes. He didn't have any doubt that the dragon before him was Hiccup now. But when had she found out? Why didn't she say anything back in Berk?

"Why didn't you tell me it was my son back in Berk?" He questioned.

"I didn't know then. He told me here."

"So you befriended him before knowing he used to be human? That's a traitorous crime."

"I didn't have a weapon on me when I found him, he was upset and was only a little hatchling. He didn't harm me."

"Why didn't you have a weapon?"

"I fell down into the cove. I must have lost it on the tumble down."

"The cove?! Are you telling me he really was in that cave after all. You lied to me?"

"I'm sorry. I'd grown attached to him, and I didn't want you to kill him. And it's a good thing too since then that witch would have gotten what she wanted. "

Stoick sighed. She was right. He could only imagine how badly he would have taken it, to see his son transform back into a human, dead by his blade.

"Get out of here." He said, loosening his grip on his axe.

"I'll let you go this time. But make no mistake. Ruffnut, you're a traitor for befriending a dragon. And Hiccup because he is a dragon. Even if you didn't realize you killed your uncle you still did it and you also attacked me. All I saw was a viscous dragon back there with no human emotion. I fear this curse is eating up whatever human you have left in you and will eventually you will become a mindless bloodthirsty dragon like the rest. Ruffnut, I suggest you go your separate ways before that happens, leave him with the older one. "

"The older one won't attack me either though." She protested.

"You said it yourself, Hiccup is holding him off. What happens when he no longer feels comfortable with human company?"

"I don't care. I'll stay with him whether that happens or not. If I die so be it, I'm not leaving him."

Stoick gave a sigh, "So be it, but don't say I didn't warn you. Don't let me see you again, I don't want to resort to killing my son."

With that, Hiccup got up and limped away with Ruffnut by his side. He wrote a quick thank you into the ice before heading to the entrance.

Toothless was ecstatic when they emerged. He started rubbing and licking them both to show how relieved he was that they were okay. He'd been waiting by the entrance when the Viking party was no longer visible.

_"I'm happy to see you too Toothless,"_ laughed Hiccup.

Unbeknownst to them, the Vikings were watching them. It was a rather amusing display.

Hiccup looked down at Toothless' chest to see the blood soaked wrappings. They hadn't helped much in stopping the blood. He tore them off.

_"I'm gonna cauterize it for you before we go back. You've already lost too much blood."_ Said Hiccup.

_"What does cauterize mean?"_ He asked.

_"It means I'm going to burn the wound shut. It hurts a lot, I did it to myself a while ago, see." _He said as he gestured to his shoulder.

Toothless didn't look to happy about the idea.

_"I'm sure it'll heal fine without that," _He protested.

_"Don't be such a baby, it's been a long time now and you are still bleeding."_

_"Fine," _He groaned.

_"Lie on your back."_

Hiccup crawled onto him and held down his front paws the best he could. He gestured for Ruffnut to hold down his head.

The Vikings wondered what an earth they were doing until they saw Hiccup blow fire onto the older Night Fury's chest wound and it shrieked in pain, trying to claw and bite at the source of it.

There was no doubt in the other Vikings' mind after that that the young Night Fury used to be human. A dragon wouldn't have known about cauterization. The proof was in the fact it hadn't done it to itself already.

After the burning was over, Toothless had ended up passing out from the pain. Now Ruffnut and Hiccup were stuck with a heavy unconscious dragon.

Ruffnut then noticed the watching Vikings, jumping slightly in surprise. Of course they'd have to come out eventually, but did it have to be at this moment?

They had to get Toothless towards some water. She wished they'd pushed Toothless a bit more to get into a safer watery area before they'd tried sealing the wound. But it was too late now.

Even together they wouldn't lift the heavy dragon out of harms way and he wasn't waking despite Hiccups efforts of shaking and nipping.

Then she thought of something. It was a crazy idea but she might as well give it a shot.

"Hey! Could we have one last favor before you go back to killing us?" She called out to the Vikings.

They'd only just settled the deal so Stoick was in a more humble mood. It helped that he now knew his son was alive, now a dragon, but still alive. It lightened the weighty depression that had overtaken him after losing his brother as well.

"What do you want?" He asked, although he pretty much knew the answer.

"Can you carry him to the flooding? We need the burn to cool but he's unconscious and too heavy to lift." She replied.

Stoick sighed as he started walking forward, gesturing for his men to follow.

"Okay, but this is the last time I won't be hostile." He warned.

"Thank you."

They all lifted up the dragon, surprised at how weighty he actually was for his size. Night Furies had quite a bit of muscle on them after all.

They heaved him into the forest where the flooding still settled and set him down.

They then walked off without another word, back to base.

* * *

The sun was setting by the time Toothless had woken up and they'd made it back to base. The flooding had all but gone now, leaving just the goopy mud behind. Since they were both too injured to fly, Hiccup scorched the mud into hard soil for them to rest on where they then all cuddled up and went to sleep, exhausted from the long frightening day.

The next few days were spent healing and making the saddle. Hiccup had regained his flight and had hunted down some deer for food and additional fabric. They all worked together to speed up the process.

Toothless helped stretch the hides by holding pebbles in his paws and rubbing them against it on a newly build stretching frame. Ruffnut came over now and then to re-tighten the rope. She herself made weapons during the wait for the fabric to be finished. She finished whittling her bow and had made some sinew cord for the bowstring. Hiccup filed down deer bones into a knife and arrowheads for her and helped her make the arrows and attach the handle to the knife.

Hiccup also worked on the pedal mechanism that would attach to the saddle.

* * *

The next day when the fabric was done and ruff was now on the lengthy process of sowing it together, Hiccup decided to go catch some fish and practice his fire control. He really wanted to try out the night fury special of diving at a high speed before firing. He no longer burnt his mouth, but he still had trouble with the intensity and concentration of the flames. He'd taken to flying like a natural and he'd learnt hunting pretty easily, but fire seemed to be the hardest thing for him to learn.

He flew off towards an edge of the island to look for some schools of fish. He'd blast his fire at them to stun them and catch them in a basket Ruffnut had made. It would make catching fish far more efficient than carrying a few for Ruffnut and eating the rest to share with toothless. He didn't enjoy gagging up the meals all the time.

He flew around the island for a bit before spotting one. He left the basket on top of a tree for now so it wouldn't catch fire. Then he climbed high into the sky, ready for his dive. He hovered for a bit, finally learning how to do so, and tucked in his wings for the plunge. He loved the feel of the air as he sored against it, making his eyes water from the intensity.

Midway down he started to gather his gas for ignition. It caused him to make the classic Night fury whistling sound as the air got trapped in his mouth, mixing with the gas at high speed. He retracted his teeth and shot. Unfortunately he hadn't put enough power into it as instead of hitting the water, it exploded several meters above in the air. He ended up flying straight into it. He tried swerving up and away from it, but he was going too fast and spun out of control as the air hit his wings too suddenly. He crashed into the ocean, scaring the school of fish off.

He treaded the water at the surface, trying to stay afloat within the waves; he knew he should have learnt how to launch from the water. The land wasn't too far off so he just swam back to shore clumsily.

Night Furies may be the best fliers but they were also the worst swimmers. His big wings just kept catching the water and making it hard to stay afloat. He also couldn't tuck them in once they had opened in the water.

Once on land, he shook off the water and went to attempt it again. Practice made perfect after all. And what sort of Night Fury was he if he couldn't get to grips with their special move?

* * *

The place he'd picked to practice though, happened to be next to the Vikings base. They were hanging out in the cover of the trees, watching Hiccup practice his move.

They'd all ended up crying in laughter after each failed attempt, the swimming to shore was even more hilarious than the muck up of the blast.

"Even as a dragon, he's a hiccup huh Stoick," One of them said.

"Sure is," he said with a smile. He couldn't help but look at him in admiration though as he flew with such skill. It was like he'd been born a dragon.

The only thing that made it clear he was his failed attempts at the Night Fury's dive-bombing. The fact he kept on trying though made him proud. He was determined and stubborn, just like a Viking should be.

It was rather ironic that he'd only start showing Viking traits when he was no longer a Viking though. He wouldn't tell his men, but he wouldn't kill Hiccup if they did cross paths again.

He looked so happy, souring up in the sky, and the love the older one had shown for him made him realize it was a better father than he ever was to Hiccup. Their ships were almost ready to go. It would take just a few more days now.

Hunting hadn't gone so well for him and his fellow Vikings. The stag they'd gone after had gotten away. Any other deer they found would be does with fawns, which they couldn't kill since wildlife needed to procreate to be a future food source. Fishing also wasn't an option.

The fish near them didn't come close enough to the shore to spear and they didn't know how to make nets. That was the women's job. The food they had managed to scavenge where some strange yellow fruit that was deliciously sweet. But Vikings couldn't survive off of fruit alone, they needed meat.

He watched as his son tried yet again, performing some twirls on the way up. As the whistling ensued, some of his men shouted 'night fury, get down' in a mocking tone. To his amazement though, he finally did it. He hit the water with his blast and gracefully swerved back into the air in an arch.

"That's my boy!" He yelled, clapping his hands. The other Vikings joined in the celebration. Hiccup's practicing was pretty much the only entertainment they had on this island and they were thoroughly enjoying the show. They cheered as though a goal had just been scored in bashyball.

Hiccup had noticed them after their cries of course. He was shocked at first; he hadn't noticed they were there. But hearing the cheering and his fathers proud yelling, he smiled and let out a victory shriek.

He flew over to the basket and took it over to the stunned fish, which he proceeded to scoop up. There were still plenty left over and he felt he needed to thank his dad for sparing his life and carrying toothless to water.

The Vikings were surprised when they saw him flying over with a basket full of fish. Hiccup hovered in the air near the clearing and tipped it upside down, dropping the fish onto the shingle.

He then flew back to the stunned school. He ate some floating on the surface before scooping up some for Toothless and Ruffnut.

Just as he was flying back over the clearing of trees he heard his father yell a thank you to him.

He was very happy the rest of the day. He even went back the next couple to show off his flying to them and give them some more of his catch.

* * *

The saddle and pedal mechanism was finally done. Ruffnut also now had her bow and arrows finished with a quiver on her back. She held her knife in a holder on her hip and also sported a new jacket of deer hide with the fur still on. It had been cooling down and she figured her smaller one wasn't enough any more.

This one still cut off at the shoulders but now came down to her lower back. When it was time to put the saddle on though, toothless ended up making a game of chase out of it. Ruff was running after him with the saddle above her head. It was quite the show for Hiccup who also joined in after a while, trying to pin him down.

Eventually they got it on. Hiccup was going to get them to try out the different foot positions first, but before they had the chance, Ruffnut opened the fin and toothless leapt into the air.

She barely hung on as the climbed high into the sky.

"Yahoo, this is amazing." she yelled.

Once up, the struggle became clear. They should have practiced closer to the ground. Ruffnut and Toothless didn't work too well together which was evident as she tried a different position only for him to either start spinning out of control or just fall from the sky until she went back to default position. She was finding it very fun though.

There came some near misses with tall trees as they tried to turn and toothless ended up having to bounce away from them. He slapped her with a frill for her lack of control over his prosthetic.

"Sorry, my fault." she said as she tried to go into a turning position. It was an hour in when she was getting the hang of the controls. Understanding which positions did what, when to use them, how to click the pedals into those positions.

They ended up flying to the beech Hiccup had been showing off at. To say the Vikings were surprised at the site would be an understatement.

Ruffnut was riding a dragon!

The Night Fury was flying rather clumsy which was odd since it was a natural dragon. Hiccup was flying more gracefully than it.

Surely it wasn't just because Ruffnut was on it. They'd seen plenty of dragons fly off fine with sheep wriggling in their clutches. Another question in Stoick's mind was why wasn't it flying before now. If it could fly before it would have surely flown off by now.

_"Hey Toothless watch this."_ yelled Hiccup as he climbed into the sky.

Toothless hovered to see what he was up to. He was surprised when he saw Hiccup come diving down and perform the diving blast and successfully at that.

_"That was amazing Hiccup," _he praised._ "When did you master it?"_

_"A couple days ago. I wanted it to be a surprise once you got in the air." _He panted.

_"Let's take a breather, we've been in the air for quite a while."_ Toothless suggested.

They landed on the shore. Ruffnut and Toothless were oblivious to the Vikings until she got off and caught site of them.

"Shit, get back in the air," she cried as she went to mount toothless again, despite how sore she was from riding him for the first time.

She stopped though as Hiccup started jogging up to said Vikings.

"Hiccup! What are you doing? Get back here." she yelled as she ran after him.

Toothless tried to overtake him, but Hiccup just flew over him.

The Vikings readied their weapons expecting an attack. They'd enjoyed watching Hiccup in the air but a dragon was dragon and Vikings killed dragons. They'd made it pretty clear that the next time they crossed paths they were enemies again.

But they halted when the Stoick raised his hand to stop them. He dropped his axe and walked over to meet Hiccup. He knew his son wouldn't hurt him unless he was a threat. He could take a dragon on with his bare fists if he had to, but he wouldn't kill his son.

Toothless and Ruffnut stood several meters back as the two stopped in front of each other. Stoick bent down and hugged him.

"I'm sorry son. I won't attack you any more."

Hiccup smiled as he wrapped his front paws around his father and gave a warble, _"I know you won't dad."_

"I'm proud of you son. Those flying skills of yours are amazing."

Hiccup teared up at that. His father was proud of him. It's all he ever wanted from his father and he finally got it. After so many years of trying to impress his father, he finally did it.

He gave him a lick on the cheek as they parted.

Ruffnut and Toothless hesitantly approached, now it didn't seem like he would harm them.

"So you're riding him now huh?"

"Yeah, it's amazing up there. The view is breath taking."

"What was wrong with him before? He didn't seem like he could fly." He asked.

"He lost his tail fin when we crashed. Hiccup's been helping me make him a prosthetic. We finally finished it today." she replied.

Stoick glanced around at Toothless' tail. He was impressed by the complexity of it.

"Hiccup designed this?"

"Yeah, he's a really good blacksmith and inventor."

Stoick hadn't paid much attention to his sons skills at all. He didn't realize how good he was at his craft in the forge. He doubted even Gobber could make something like this.

He went to take a closer look but toothless growled at him. Hiccup gave him a swat on the nose.

_"He only wants a closer look Mr. hostile."_ Hiccup teased.

_"I'm not letting him get any closer to me. Take down my guard one bit and he'll try and break my neck, I'm sure of it."_

Ruffnut took over and started giving Toothless a scratch in his sweet spot.

He tried to resist it at first, but he couldn't help purring and leaning into her touch.

"I-is it purring?" Stammered Stoick. He'd never heard of a dragon doing that.

"They enjoy scratches. Turns them into big softies." Replied Ruffnut.

Toothless soon managed to snap out of it though, giving an annoyed glance at Ruffnut, he then went over to Hiccup and grabbed him by the scruff.

Hiccup went floppy like a rag doll.

_"Hey no fair, let me go."_ He whined

_"No, we're leaving. I've had enough of being so close to a huge smelly Viking."_

Hiccup sighed before giving a wave to his chuckling father. This was so embarrassing.

"Bye chief. We'll most likely be leaving soon, once I get the controls down. Say goodbye to Tuff for me."

"Will do. Take care Ruff."

They then split ways, Ruffnut getting back on toothless and Stoick going back to his confused men.

* * *

It was that night they decided to leave. They packed up their supplies and flew off into the darkness, yelling and screeching out goodbyes to the Vikings as they flew by.

* * *

**AN - So there we go, Stoick now knows and he won't kill Hiccup. I hope I wrote the confrontation okay. **

**Now they have left the island, we may find out what's happening back in Berk next chapter. It depends how much room the next part of my plan takes up. The story writes itself a lot of the time. It may be chapter 16 instead. **

**Next chapter in 3-4 days.**

**Reviews**

**MoonlightAngel131 – ****Thanks for worrying about me, it means a lot. I've had a migraine for over three weeks now that's been getting in the way of my writing sometimes, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. It'll leave me alone...eventually. **

**Thank you everyone else who reviewed, followed and faved. Every alert I get is like a happiness pill. :)**


	15. The Queen

**AN- fudge, I can't believe it's already been over a week since I last updated! So sorry for the delay. I was caught up in other things and was very busy. I lost track of the time. It doesn't help that my sleep pattern is all over the place. I slept for 19 hours one day and since then I've been sleeping from times like 4pm to 11pm, 2pm-6pm, 7am – 3pm... I barely know which day is what any more. Seriously need to sort that out. At least my migraine's finally gone. Just a headache some days now. **

**so, sorry again. **

**Anyway, after this chapter I'll be doing a few filler chaps. It was originally going to be just a time skip, but I came up with some fun adventure ideas to fill in the gap. So look forward to those. **

**I hope you enjoy :)**

**Thanks GodofGreed for Beta-ing.**

* * *

Chapter 15

They had been flying for a good hour now. The moon was full in the night sky and the northern lights were making a beautiful show among the twinkling stars. They were flying above the clouds, which although usually invisible to see from the ground, were illuminated in shades of blue from the natural lights above them. It was truly breathtaking.

Ruffnut enjoyed touching the clouds for the first time. She never imagined she'd get to feel them. From their appearance on the ground, she thought they would be fluffy like sheep's wool; but they felt more like cold steam or fog, gently wetting her hands as they drifted by.

After leaving their island, they weren't sure where they were heading. She figured they'd just land on the next island when they grew tired and if it was nice they could settle down for a bit before moving on. Now she'd seen one island away from her village she wanted to see more, as did Hiccup. Who knew how much world was out there to explore? It picked at their adventurous curiosity.

They were taken from their thoughts though as a strange clicking vibrating sound was heard. This was all Ruffnut could hear anyway as she glanced down as Toothless whose ear frills were moving erratically. Glancing over to Hiccup showed the same thing. Whatever was happening, she had a bad feeling about it.

_**"Come to me."**_ The voice beckoned in his head. Hiccup didn't know whom this voice belonged to only that it was strangely enticing.

_**"Come to me." **_The voice repeated over and over as it reverberated in his skull. He felt nerved by the calling, but for some reason he couldn't deny it. He fell into a light trance as he soon found himself following it, Toothless following beside him. It was clear they had both fallen into this trap.

They dove down into a swarm of many more dragons, also following the call. These ones however had sheep and fish in their clutches from a raid.

Ruffnut didn't know what was going on. She tried to snap the two night furies out of it but they wouldn't listen. All she could do was match the prosthetic tail with Toothless' movements and duck for cover when the dragons appeared.

They flew further down into a fog, swerving side to side to avoid pillars of rocks. Soon they came upon a volcano, which they promptly flew into.

Ruffnut was amazed by what she saw. It was the dragon's nest.

She watched the other dragons drop their loot into the middle of the volcanic cavern. Ruffnut was wondering why they weren't eating any of it.

They landed on a nearby ledge. Toothless and Hiccup suddenly snapped out of the trance and started looking around panicked. Hiccup had no idea how they'd gotten there and where there even was. Toothless started whining in fear and cowering. He knew exactly what this place was and hoped to never come back to it.

_"Toothless, what's wrong? Where are we?"_ Hiccup asked worriedly. He hadn't seen Toothless act so scared before.

_"We shouldn't be here, we need to leave!"_ Toothless snapped.

Before they could actually get to that though, they watched as a lone Gronckle spat out some fish, looking quite pleased with itself before a gigantic head game up from the fiery pit and ate him.

Hiccup and Ruffnut stared in shock.

"What was that?!" Cried Ruffnut.

It caught sight of them and spoke in its trance inducing speech, _**"Night Fury, you have returned. I grew restless with your delay and yet even though you have finally come back, I see you have not brought an offering with you. Why have you shown such dishonor to your queen?"**_

_"I-I'm sorry for my late return your highness, I became wounded and could not return straight away. I'm sorry for the lack of offering, I've only just regained my flight. I will catch something exemplary next time."_

_**"Hmm, I see. For any other dragon I would not be so understanding. If you fail me again you shall be punished."**_

_"Yes, of course my queen."_ replied Toothless. He was not under her control any more, but he didn't want to upset her and get them all killed. As soon as they got out of here they'd fly far far away.

_**"And who is it you have brought with you? Is that another night fury I see? And a Viking child?!"**_

_"Ah yes, I found this hatchling shortly after my last leave. He had grown fond of the Viking so she came along to. I could not separate them."_

_**"Then allow me,"**_ She grinned. _**"Kill her now."**_

It was then that she threw her controlling mind waves more strongly at him and he began shaking his head in pain. He'd hoped she wouldn't notice the control had been lost, but with how much force she was putting behind her power, she clearly knew. He couldn't resist. Her power was too strong.

As he was fighting against it, she turned her attention to Hiccup.

_**"Greetings young one. Welcome to your new home."**_

_"Home? Ah no I don't plan on staying. And what are you doing to Toothless? Please stop, you're hurting him." _He cried worriedly.

_**"I'm afraid I can't do that young one. I'm the queen and he is my underling. I must make sure he obeys me. It is only natural for him to fight for his freedom."**_

_"His freedom?! You can't do that, he's not your slave."_

_**"But he was young one and will be again, just like you."**_ she laughed as she focused on gaining control of him as well.

The queen's control allowed her to peer into a dragons mind and force them to submit through their memories. What she saw inside Hiccup's head surprised her greatly as she had never heard of a dragon having human memories. The power of this witchcraft she saw inside his mind scared her normally unwavering mind at first, but she saw inside Toothless' mind that the witch who had cast it was no longer a problem.

She doubted there was any other human around with the same level of magic, so she saw no threat to her life. She'd send search parties out later though to make sure.

* * *

Hiccup felt blinding pain as she probed his mind, he tried shaking her off but it wasn't working. Ruffnut was currently holding him, asking him what was wrong. Tears were pouring down her cheeks from fear of what was happening.

They were stuck in a volcanic cavern with a mountain-sized dragon and now both her night fury brothers were shaking their heads in pain. She didn't know what to do. They didn't respond to her voice or her actions. She shook them, slapped them and shouted at them to snap out of it but it just didn't work.

Then she heard a growling behind her and saw Toothless. His pupils were mere slits and he was slowly coming towards her.

"Toothless what's wrong, why are you looking at me like that?" She quivered. Before she knew it, she was at the edge of the ledge and he charged at her, knocking her off.

* * *

Hiccup was still struggling to keep control.

_**"I see you had a torturous past at the hands of your fellow Vikings."**_

_"Shut up."_

_**"Don't you want revenge? Don't you want to hurt them like they hurt you? You can now you know. You're a dragon."**_

_"Shut up! I don't want revenge."_

_**"You're lying, I can tell. You despised how they treated you. You always wished you could get your own back. And what about your father? All those years you tried to impress him only for him to see you as an embarrassment."**_

_"That doesn't bother me any more, he said he's proud of me."_

_**"Yes, but only now that you are a fierce dragon. Do you think he would have ever noticed your hard work and efforts in the forge and your drive to become stronger otherwise? If you hadn't turned into a dragon, the villagers would still be treating you like dirt and your father would still never acknowledge you."**_

Something snapped in his head and she managed to worm her way in deeper. She was finally breaking him down.

_**"And what about that Astrid girl you fancied? She would have never loved you back. She may not have beaten you up like the other teens, but she didn't stop them either. I bet she just enjoyed the show from the sidelines, not wanting to get your filthy blood on her hands."**_

_"N-no, I'm sure that wasn't it. She's not like that."_

_**"How do you know that? You know I can bet that even if she did know it was you behind that dragon flesh, she'd only see it as the perfect excuse to get rid of you."**_

The queen kept climbing deeper into his mind, gaining more control. The human mind inside him was far tougher to penetrate than any dragon she'd brainwashed before. She was almost done and broken down his barriers when all of a sudden she was pushed back.

* * *

Hiccup snapped out of it as soon as he heard a scream. He glanced over the edge and saw Ruffnut falling! He dived over straight away to catch her. When he did however, the queen snapped her jaws over them.

The queen had tired herself trying to take over Hiccups defiant mind; she didn't have the reserves to attempt it again so soon. So instead, she'd kill him. If he got away then he may try to take her down. Night Furies were powerful and she was lucky to get one of them under her control. If this youngling hadn't had a human mind, she'd have also gained control of him by now too.

But she'd made an error with trying to kill the youngling with the protective adult Night Fury as witness.

Toothless snapped out of her control just as the queen snapped her jaws. He gave a shriek of alarm and fired some blasts at her.

He could not fly on his own so he paced back and forth on the ledge, launching his attacks. They did little to harm her though as her hide was extremely thick and fireproof to the point she could bathe in molten lava.

Inside her mouth, another battle was commencing. Hiccup flapped and hovered around the queen's mouth. He avoided the giant tongue the best he could as it tried to push him to the back of her throat. He wasn't going to die here! Not like this!

The tongue got a lucky swipe at his side, covering him in sticky saliva. He hurtled to the side of her mouth and clawed into the gums around her teeth desperately. He did his best to ignore the bits of dragon; sheep and fish carcasses caught between her fangs and started to bite down hard into her gums. He bit and scratched, trying to get her to open up her jaws, but it just wouldn't work.

Ruff climbed on top of him. The were grounded on the gums for now and she took the opportunity to get a better grounding and stabbed into the gums with her bone knife. There was plenty of blood spilling out now from both of their attacks, but still she would not open her jaws. Her tongue kept brushing over them to remove them, but they held firm.

"Hold onto my leg and grip with your claws, I'm gonna try out my bow," Ruffnut yelled.

She hadn't had much practice yet but this was a life or death situation. She couldn't afford to miss.

She prepared the arrow as the tongue washed over her again. She could barely see in their current lighting, it was amazing there was any light at all. It seemed to come up from her throat, her inner fire, which was good because that's where she was aiming. Her target was the uvula. Her experimentation with her and Tuffnut's bodies let her know that just touching that thing made you wretch and maybe even hurl. It was the only choice they had.

She pulled the arrow back as far as she could... aimed... then let go. It hit! It had almost missed but it hit it just on the side.

The queen gave out a pained shriek and opened her jaws as she wretched and shook her head back and forth to dislodge the arrow.

Hiccup took the opportunity to pull Ruff off his back by her ankle he still had in his mouth and fly out of there. He flew up to the ledge Toothless was on and threw her down. Hiccup could see Toothless was luckily not under the queen's control, his eyes weren't glassy and he was worried about both of them.

Ruffnut quickly got to her feet, limping slightly since Hiccup had accidentally bit into her ankle during the get away. She got onto Toothless and they flew out the top of the volcano, not yet noticing Hiccup had stayed behind.

When the queen finally got rid of the arrow, she gave a mighty bellow of a roar, causing dragons to flee after Toothless in a swarm. Then her focus came to Hiccup who was still on the ledge.

_**"Shall you not flee like your partners?"**_ she questioned.

_"I'll be leaving shortly, but first I'd like to make a promise to you."_

This picked at the queen's interest. The youngling was looking straight into her eyes defiantly.

_"I may not be strong enough yet, but one day I will be. When that day comes, I'll come back... and I'll kill you."_

_**"HAHAHAHA,"**_ she laughed, _**"You?! Kill Me? You're getting ahead of yourself. I am far to mighty for you to even leave a scratch in my hide. You'll be returning to a death sentence."**_

_"You'll see, because no matter what, I can't let you keep enslaving dragons like this. Even if it does kill me, I'll be taking you down with me. The dragons only attack villages because you order them to. If I get rid of you, the war between dragons and Vikings will be over. They will be able to live in relative peace with one another."_

_**"Oh? Is that your goal? Peace. There will never be true peace. There shall always be war. Whether that is between Vikings and dragons or Vikings against other Vikings."**_

_"There may still be wars between Viking clans to deal with, however far less shall die from the corruption you have brought upon Archipelago. Enjoy your life while you can, I'll be back for your head."_ He seethed, before then flying though the swarm of dragons to the top.

_**"I'll be waiting,"**_ The queen chuckled, jumping up for one last attempted grab at him as he departed. It would be a long while before he saw her hideous form again.

* * *

As he came into the fresh air, Toothless flew over to him bombarding him with questions.

_"I'm fine Toothless, I just wanted to tell the queen something before we left."_

_"What did you tell her?"_

_"Well to shorten it down, I basically said I'd come back one day to kill her."_

_"And how do you expect to do that?!"_ Even as powerful as Toothless was, even he knew he couldn't take on the mighty queen.

_"I don't know yet, it may take years. But one day I'll be strong enough and have the knowledge to defeat her. She may have brawn on her side, but I have my brains. I'll come up with something eventually."_ He grinned.

_"Well okay, but no hard feelings if you don't come up with anything. We don't ever have to return."_

_"No! I will come up with something. I can't let her tyranny go on any longer. I'll give myself some years to prepare, but I won't go past a decade. Who knows how many would have died by her hand then?"_ He shot back.

Toothless gave a sigh. _"Okay then. So where should we head to first?"_

Hiccup looked across the horizon, the sun was starting to come up.

_"Let's find a place to rest first, then I'd like to head south. I hear the further you go the warmer it gets and I've always wanted to experience hot weather. It's always so cold on Berk."_

So off they flew. Their long adventure of preparation was just beginning.

* * *

Back at Berk, the training wasn't going too well.

The Terror was behaving like a bossy spoiled house cat. It bit and scratched the teens in their efforts to study methods of training it and only warmed up when it felt like it. Food would be it's main motivation.

Snotlout was having the worst of it.

The Terror saw him as just one giant chew toy. It would bite him every time he approached it, even if he had food. Even if he minding his own business elsewhere in the ring, it would sneak up on him and give him a nasty surprise. He had bruises in several places from its strong little gums.

Astrid looked a mess. Her hair was no longer in its neat braid but had stray stands hanging down and up from the terror nesting and chewing on her head. There were also some singed pieces when she hadn't removed it in time for it to start making its nest warm and cozy. The rest of the mess was from her pulling at it herself from the stress.

Tuffnut had taken to ignoring the Terror. His nose was red and swollen since it liked to attack his face when he got near. He didn't mind the pain, he was a bit of a machinist. It was the looks and giggles he got from the villagers over his big red clown nose that annoyed him.

Fishlegs also wasn't having much luck despite being the one to initially tame it. Sure it didn't attack him, but it clearly saw Fishlegs as a food source. He was always giving it food. Sometimes it would snatch it out of his hands though and his fingers were sore from the careless grabbing.

The only positive thing they found out would be that dragons don't like eels. It wouldn't be too good to scare the dragons with them though since they wanted to earn the dragons trust, not terrify them.

When a couple more terrors were brought in, their problems only grew more stressful as the new ones followed the lead of the first one.

"That's it, we're moving onto something bigger," yelled Tuffnut.

"You're not serious are you?! We haven't even tamed the terrors properly yet." Replied Astrid.

"I just think the bigger ones may actually be easier. Maybe the Terrors just aren't as tameable as the other species."

"Well count me out, I'll be watching from the stands," Said Fishlegs, as he hobbled off to do just that.

"Come on Snotlout lets join Fishlegs. Let the reckless idiot get him killed. He's not dragging me down with him."

"Sure thing babe. I mean I could totally tame one of the larger ones straight away, but I'll enjoy watching Tuffnut fail and get mauled to death first." He boasted.

Astrid just let out a disgusted sound and followed after Fishlegs.

"Hmm, which one to try?" Wondered Tuffnut.

Gobber had fallen asleep in the stands, not wanting to get bit by the terrors. He was oblivious to what was going on below him.

"Eeny mini miny moe, I chooooose...you!" He yelled, pointing to the Zippleback door.

He walked up and pulled the lever, immediately backing away afterwards. A heavy fog of green drifted out of the cage, engulfing the arena. Tuffnut couldn't see anything.

"Hmm, maybe this wasn't the best choice. Damn you eeny mini moe, you failed me!" he cried to the sky.

He started walking around, keeping an eye out for the dragon, while Fishlegs was talking to the others about how Zipplebacks preferred ambush attacks and had venom for pre-digestion in their long serrated fangs.

Tuffnut glanced all around him. The gas was making him feel a bit sick and he was getting a headache but he made sure to stay sharp.

Then he heard something behind him. He turned around to be met with one of the heads.

"Nice dragon, I won't hurt you. Please don't hurt me." He said as he held his hands in front of himself.

His heart was pounding as he reached behind him and pulled out a fish. He put his arm out to the dragon to take it when the next head appeared. Both of their pupils grew wide at the smell of the fish. The only problem was that he'd only armed himself with that one fish.

The second head glanced away from it for a moment to have a sniff at him. He'd been hanging around the terrors and handling fish a lot so he smelt safe to them.

Each of the heads took an end of the fish from his hands, careful not to bite off the safe humans fingers. They tore it in half and gulped it up greedily.

"Okay, so far so good," He muttered to himself.

They started sniffing him again as the gas around them started to thin. Then one of them picked him up by the back of his tunic.

"Woah-woah-woah, I'm off the ground, I'm off the ground, just stay calm."

Then he was tossed to the other head and back again as they started playing catch with him.

"Hey, this is kinda fun. Faster, throw me higher. Woo."

Then the gas head didn't catch him fast enough and he dropped. The spark head found it funny so ended up laughing. This ended up causing him to spark though and the gas in the air ignited.

The loud explosion was heard all through the village and promptly woke Gobber up from his nap.

"Wha', huh? What's going on?" He muttered, still half asleep. Until he saw what was happening in the ring that is.

Tuffnut had been blown across the ring into a wall. He was covered in soot and had some burns. He was moaning from the force he hit the wall.

"Beard of Thor, wha' is going on down there? Who le' the dragon ou'?" he cried.

The teens all pointed to Tuffnut.

"Did none of you think to stop 'im?!"

"Well, he seemed pretty determined about it so we just got out of the way."

Gobber gave a sigh at their stupidity and clear lack of care for the well being of their team-mate. He rushed his way down to the pit.

"Ouch, that hurt a lot. But it was so awesome." Tuffnut commented.

He hulled himself up, cringing from the second-degree burn on his side as he walked over to the Zippleback.

It had a guilty expression on its face. It hadn't meant to hurt the safe human they were playing with.

"Don't worry I'm fine. Takes more than this to knock me down," he laughed. "But that was fun, do it again."

The Zippleback heads looked at him like he was crazy but then gave a grin. They had a new playmate.

It ran over to him and one of the heads latched its jaws over his head so only his lower torso and arms were visible. It picked him up and shook him side to side.

* * *

"DROP 'IM YOU OVER GROWN LIZARD," Yelled Gobber as he charged with his axe.

The Zippleback gave a screech and fanned out its wings at the approaching Viking. It backed up with Tuffnut still in one of the mouths. They were careful not to bite down though.

"Wait Gobber! It's fine. We're just playing." Shouted Tuffnut, but it was muffled by the dragon's mouth he was in.

Gobber halted. "Are you trying to tell me it's no' currently eating you?"

"No really, it's just playing. Watch." He put his hand on the dragon's neck.

"Drop." He commanded. It didn't listen. "Drop me or Gobber will chop off your head."

That got it to drop.

He reached out and gave it a pet as thank you.

"See Gobber, I trained it." He said smugly.

"If you call tha' training it. You're badly burned and it was using you as a chew toy jus' then."

"Just some rough play, the way I like it," he grinned.

Gobber gave a sigh, "whatever you say lad, bu' still, pu' it away and we'll ge' those wounds treated."

Tuff did as he said, the Zippleback willingly going into its cage without any effort.

"We'll play again later okay. I'll bring you more fish."

The other teens were staring down at him dumbfounded. His plan had actually worked, for now anyway. Hopefully it wouldn't end up like with the terrible terrors.

And it didn't. The following days, Tuffnut played and fed it. He ended up with plenty of bruises and burns but he was laughing all the while. The Zippleback seemed to love his company and enjoyed playing with him. They even started sleeping together. Tuffnut started staying in the dragon's cage overnight, saying it was far warmer than his bed. He didn't admit though that he also enjoyed the company. After Ruffnut left, he hadn't slept too well in the quiet room they used to share since birth. It didn't feel right sleeping alone.

The other teens didn't get too close to the Zippleback like he had. The dragon liked playing rough and they just weren't up for being mauled. They'd had enough of that with the terrors.

So they decided to take on their own dragons.

* * *

Fishlegs didn't have too much trouble. He tried out the Gronckle. He made sure to carry a shield so he wouldn't get hurt. From their previous training experiences, the dragons always seemed to attack them before they calmed down.

He was shot at six times before the Gronckle came to it's shot limit and calmed down. It had only really aimed at the shield since it had been captive the longest and understood how these lessons went. Kids come at her with shields and she shoots the shields. Shooting the kids got her a hook in the mouth. But now she was out of shots and hadn't been put away, so she didn't know what to do.

Fishlegs approached her and offered her a fish. She was confused at first and hesitantly came closer. She growled and eyed the shield, which Fishlegs understood. Maybe even shields were seen as a weapon. So he threw it aside.

She came in close and grabbed it out his hands.

"That a boy."

Oh great, the Viking thought she was a male. She guessed it didn't matter for now though.

Fishlegs reached out his hand to pet her. Her pupils grew wide as she sniffed his palm. Then she nuzzled her snout into it. Fishlegs was surprised at the gesture but it felt nice. He felt a wave of joy over come him, he swore he felt some kind of strange connection to the dragon. Their hearts beat as one.

"I-I did it." He remarked. He moved his hands down her sides and gave her a scratch, which she seemed to enjoy. Then his hands rubbed a particular spot that caused her to collapse and roll onto her side, hind leg twitching.

"Whoa! How did I do that?"

"Way to go Fishlegs, now we both have dragons," Smirked Tuff.

It didn't go as well for Astrid and Snotlout though. Snotlout tried the monstrous nightmare, saying he would be chief one day and should have the strongest dragon under his command. It clearly didn't like him though and was very disobedient. He ended up with many burns, while the dragon laughed in mocking humor at this failure.

At some point he lost his temper and tried to beat the poor dragon into submission, even going so far as tying it down so it couldn't defend itself. But he only ended up getting a tail slap across the face like a whip. He gave up after that. None of the other dragons would warm up to him either.

The same went for Astrid. It was like they could smell the pent up anger on her. It also didn't help that she always smelt of metal. She refused to stop her daily axe throwing practice.

The tipping point was when the Deadly-Nadder got a hit on her with one of its spines. It lodged deep into her right calf and she swore to it she'd make it pay for that. She gave up trying to make friends with them.

* * *

It was the next day after the two gave up that Stoic came back.

There was only one ship that looked rather plain without any painting on the wooden sides. It wasn't a ship that had set off.

The lack of men and the solemn expression showed their terrible failure of finding the nest. Ruffnut wasn't with them either, so finding her was also a failure it seemed.

The ten of them got off the boat as a female villager came over to Stoic to ask him what happened and where her husband was. It was a rhetorical question though as if your loved one didn't return, they were most definitely dead.

Stoic looked down and shook his head as the women broke into tears.

"The trip was a disaster. We lost a lot of men in search of the nest but your husband wasn't one of them. On the way back we were hit by a terrible storm. I'm afraid he was lost during that. We were shipwrecked for a several days as we made a boat to bring us home. There's the slight chance that those who didn't wash up dead with us are still alive on another island, but it's unlikely. It's lucky that any of us returned at all. I also lost my brother." He replied sadly.

The villagers at the docks looked upon Stoic with pity and anger as he made his way to the healers cabin. Many had died because of his persistence to find the nest. Many doubted his leadership and whether they should continue to follow his commands. He was walking on thin ice, they were sure to rebel if he tried to voyage on that suicidal mission again. Their trust in him was waning.

He saw Snotlout run up to him.

"Uncle Stoic you're back. Where's dad?" He questioned, looking over the nine men following him.

"Um, Snotlout. I'm afraid I have some bad news. I hoped not to break it to you so soon but, Spitelout didn't make it." He said, not looking his nephew in the eye.

"Huh? W-what are you talking about. My dad is far to strong to...to."

Stoic put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"No! He can't be dead. You're lying."

"I'm not lying, I saw his body for myself and gave him a proper funeral. I know you're upset. I am too. He was my brother."

"How then? Tell me how he died. Was it at least heroically in battle?" He pleaded. As much as he hated to admit it, tears were pouring down his cheeks.

"We were on our way back from our failed voyage to the nest when a storm hit. We were shipwrecked on an island. He was killed while battling a dragon."

It wasn't entirely true. He had been battling one, but it wasn't an honorable death. He'd been tripped up and had his throat torn out. He hadn't been able to put up much of a fight. He certainly couldn't tell Snotlout it was Hiccup who delivered the killing blow.

Snotlout wiped his tears. "At least he went out like a true Viking. Did you kill the dragon that ended him?"

"Um no, I'm afraid not. It was a very powerful dragon, we only just got it to leave us alone."

"What species was it?"

Stoic hesitated. Should he lie? He'd already sugar coated the truth. No, as long as he didn't say it was Hiccup it would be fine.

"It was a Night Fury."

Snotlout looked up in shock. Night Furies were rare so it was likely one of the dragons that had escaped Berk. Most likely the larger one. His father was too strong to be taken down by the runt.

"I'll go with you the next time you go looking for it. I need to revenge my father. It's taken two of your family so we're on the same page here now right?"

"S-sure, but it will have to be much later. I lost a lot of men on the last voyage, winter is coming and we have no clue where they could have gone besides the nest which we have never been able to reach."

In all honesty, Stoic wanted to delay it as much as possible. He hoped Hiccup, Ruffnut and the older Night Fury would fly far far away, so he wouldn't be forced to watch his son get taken down by his men or even himself if it came to that.

Dragons were still the enemy. They killed his people and stole their food. Unless they stopped, the war would never end. The only way he could possibly think of ending it would be to wipe out all the dragons or at least scare them off. Ruffnut may have seemed to have trained the older one, but it was uncertain whether it would eventually turn on her. He didn't of course know that that had indeed happened a couple days before at the nest, even if it was okay now.

"Now lets say once I get healed up we throw a feast in honor of those who didn't make it, like always. I'm sure they wouldn't want us getting all depressed over their valiant deaths." Stoic suggested with a smile.

"Sure thing chief. I'll go let the other villagers know." Snotlout replied, trying to cheer himself up. Vikings always celebrated the lives of the deceased with a party and a feast.

After Stoic was done getting his wounds treated, he decided to go talk to Tuffnut. He had to tell him about his sister's fate at some point. The sooner the better.

* * *

He found him down at the fishing docks, gathering a basket of fish. Why he was doing this he didn't know but he didn't think too much about it.

"Hey there Tuffnut, how are you holding up?"

"Chief! Your back. Did you find Ruffnut at all?" He pleaded.

"Yes, we did find her."

"Really?! Then where is she?" He asked looking around. She's not hurt is she? Or..."

"Ah no, she's fine. But she's not with us." He gave a sigh before continuing. "Your sisters a traitor Tuffnut. She's sided with the dragons and won't be returning to Berk. I'm sorry."

"So she really did tame one then?" He asked excitedly, which shocked Stoic. How was he not upset that his sister was a traitor and he'd never see her again?

"Don't you understand you'll never see your sister again?"

"Well if she isn't dead then there is always the chance right? Besides I think it would be way cooler to be on the run with dragons than stuck in the village all the time. Just wish she'd invited me along."

"You'd rather be a traitor, an outcast, than remain in the company and safety of your own people?!" He asked aghast.

"I didn't mean it that way. I'd just like to explore what's out there. I'm sure it would be lots of fun. And exploring on dragon back would be awesome. Imagine how far you could travel." He replied in a daze.

"Well there won't be any dragon riding in this village. Dragons are the enemy, I see anyone siding with a dragon, and their banished too, got that? If you want to explore you'll do it by ship like a Viking."

"Y-yes sir." He'd have to let Fishlegs know. They'd both bonded with their dragons and were almost ready to try riding. But it would have to be kept secret. Perhaps they could hide the dragons in the woods so they wouldn't get slaughtered in the ring.

* * *

That night, the two teens did just that. They'd had Snotlout, Astrid and Gobber promise not to tell. They'd tell Stoic the Gronckle and the Zippleback had died during dragon training to cover up why they were missing.

Astrid and Snotlout were going to start the proper training from now on, but they understood the connection Tuffnut and Fishlegs had made. As long as the two dragons didn't wander into the village to steal food and attack the villagers, they'd leave them in peace. They also said that if Tuffnut and Fishlegs were found out, they'd play dumb. They weren't going to be dragged down with them.

Stoic kept the secret that Hiccup was the younger night fury from the rest of the villagers. Apart from the men who had been on the voyage with him, he also told Gobber. He was his best friend after all and he was also close to Hiccup. He felt he deserved to know. He was shocked of course, but was clearly very happy to find out his apprentice was alive.

* * *

Three years past after all this. Tuffnut and Fishlegs managed to keep their dragons a secret and enjoyed their daily flying. Fishlegs called his dragon Meatlug who he eventually found out was female when she laid eggs. Tuffnut called his dragon two names, one for each head. The one that spewed gas was named Barf and the one who let out sparks was called Belch.

They ventured out to many nearby islands but never left Archipelago.

Fishlegs became Gobber's new apprentice and also worked on a new book of dragons. Tuffnut spent his time exploring and making a map. He always left in a boat to a nearby island to meet his dragon that would fly over when he was told to prior to the departure.

Astrid and Snotlout became formidable dragon killers just like the rest of their village. Snotlout was also in training to be the next chief. He wasn't the best at the political stuff. He wasn't really the best material for chief, but with Hiccup gone, he was next in line. Stoic just had to try his best to improve his nephew.

The raids weren't as bad during those years. It was mainly thanks to the eel discovery. Eels were lined around the sheep hideouts and fish storage sheds to keep the dragons away. It didn't stop them from trying but it did minimize the losses.

The past three years however had been far more eventful for Toothless, Hiccup and Ruffnut. It all started with their flight to the South...

* * *

**AN – So what did you think? I hope it didn't seem too rushed at the end there. **

**I included an idea from 'Skeek622' who PM'd me, about the possibility of how some of the Vikings on the voyage during the storm could have washed up elsewhere. Whether they did or not, who knows. **

_**Reviews**_

**CaleoForeva - not entirely sure. It ends when it ends. Also depends on chapter length. But it could reach 25-30 maybe. **

**a random person – go exploring for now, but I'll have him return eventually.**

**AtkiakFF – ****we'll see how long it can be. I won't milk it for more than it can give, but I have planned the extra adventure chaps in there so I hope you enjoy those. And thx for the PM, I would worry too if an author with short update time took longer than normal. ;)**

**Breyannia – ****As you just read, he will not be telling Snotlout. (not yet anyway hehe) And well done for figuring out they hadn't gone to the nest yet to face the green/red death. It didn't feel right having them fight it just yet though as Hiccup is still getting used to being a dragon. He hasn't learnt to fight yet. And Toothless and Ruffnut are still a bit wonky with the flying. I can only imagine the disaster that would befall them if they fought it straight away.**

**Now for the adventuring, I already have four locations planned with fun stuff to do in each of them, but I'd love to hear your ideas as well. If I can make it seem plausible they could fit it all into a three year time span, it fits along the path they will take, it's unique and I like it, I'll add it. :)**

**Of course I'll credit you for the idea. **

**I'm still rather busy so it might take a week again, we'll see. But after that I'll be back to the quick updates of 3 days. **


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